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THE BURNS ALMANAC. 



PRKSS OF 

WAI.'TER W. RKID, 

NEW YORK. 



NOTE. 

The compiler will esteem it a favor to receive a memoran- 
dum of additional items or corrections from anyone, so that in 
the event of another edition of The Ai^manac being called 
for, it may be made as perfect as possible. Address, care of 
the Publisher. A sufficient space has been left at the end of 
each date for the insertion of any items that may suggest 
themselves to the reader ; while for more extended notes a few 
blank pages have been provided at the end of the book. 

I have to acknowledge, with thanks, the valuable assist- 
ance rendered me in compiling the book, by my brother, Peter 
Ross, LL. D., New York, and John Muir, F. S. A. Scot, 
Glasgow. 

JOHN D. ROSS. 



THE 



BURNS ALMANAC 



A RECORD OF DATES, EVENTwS, Etc., 
CONNECTED WITH THE POET. 



BY 

JOHN D. ROSS, LL. D., 

Editor of "Burnsiana," "Round Burns' Grave," "Burns' Clarinda," etc. 




Nkw York : 

THE RAEBURN BOOK COMPANY, 

185 Grand Street. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. >s^ 



** Edinburgh, Dec. 7, 1786. 

" I am in a fair way of becoming as eminent 

as Thomas a Kempis or John Bunyan ; and you may expect 
henceforth to see my birthday inserted among the wonderful 
events in the Poor Robin's and Aberdeen Ahnanacks, along 
with the Black Monday and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge." 

— Burns to Gavin Hamilton. 



That far-off day in Edinburgh town, 

When Burns first tasted fame, 
His fancy wove his coming crown, 

And saw his famous name: 
For was he not on upward track ? 

With "Bunj^an" soon to shine; 
And in " Poor Robin's Almanac" 

To get a birthday line — 
Forthwith, that day. 

Now has he worn his fadeless crown 
For a himdred years or more ; 

With all the world for Edinburgh town, 
To harken and adore : 

"rspnc;' now moref* 'eminent" than he, 
On- his mastersinger's throne, 

A.rnong the, world's best company; 

,' ;Wit;li dn Almanac his own — 
Herewith, this day. 



1898. Hunter MacCulloch. 



THIS VOI^UME IS RESPECTFUI^IvY 
DEDICATED TO 

The Hon. CHARLES H. COLLINS, 
Hii,i.SBORO, Ohio, U. S. A., 

IN APPRECIATION OF HIS EFFORTS BOTH BY VOICE AND PEN TO EXTEND 
THE FAME OF 

ROBKRT BURNS IN AMERICA. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Burns Ai^manac. Poem. MacCui.i.och. Back 

of titi.e page, 

AlvMANAC, 13 

Robert Burns' FamiIvY, 89 

WlI,I^IAM BURNES' FaMIIvY, 89 

Prices obtainabi^e in 1898 for a first edition of 

Burns, 90 

List of subscribers for the first edition, . 91 

Seven Epochs in the Life of Burns, ... 91 

ChronoTvOGical Table of Burns' Life and Works, 93 

Burns Ci.ubs in America, 113 

Statues and Busts of Burns, 114 

Books subscribed for by Burns, . . . . 115 

A Century of Burns Biography. Wallace, . .115 

The Story of Clarinda, 124 

Burns in Westminster Abbey, 126 

Misconceptions Regarding Burns. Ross, . . 134 

Flowers Mentioned by Burns, 139 

The Funeral of Robert Burns, .... 143 

Manuscript Notes, 148 



THE BURNS ALMANAC, 



JANUARY. 
1 — 



"This Day Time Winds," etc. Composed 1791. 
" Epistle to Davie, a brother poet." Composed 1785. 
''Elegy on the Year 1788." Composed 1789. 
"To Miss Logan." Composed 1787. 



Article entitled "A Century of Burns' Biography," 
by William Wallace in Chambers's Journal, 1896. 



Rev. Andrew Jeffrey died 1795. 

Robert Burness, uncle of the poet, died 17S9. 



The Newbery Classics "Burns." Edited by J. R. 
Tutin. Published 1893. 



14 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 



Rev. Dr. William Burnside, Dumfries, died 1806, 
Alexander Eraser Tytler, died 1813. 



"O Poortith Cauld and Restless Love." Composed 
1793. 



Gilbert Burns initiated into vSt. James's Lodge, F. & 

A. M. 1786. 
Allan Ramsay died 1758. 



The Poet defines his religious creed in a letter to 
Clarinda, 1788. 



'•Highland Mary," published by Alexander Gard- 
ner, Paisley, 1894. 



10 



Robert Graham, of Fintry, died 18 15. 
The Caledonian Hunt subscribed for 100 copies of 
the Poet's second edition, 1787. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 15 
11 



Dr. John Mackenzie died 1737. 



12 



The Poet present at orand Masonic meeting, St. 

Andrew's Lodge, Edinburgh, 1787. 
Col. Wni. Fullarton, died 1754. 



13 



Albany, (N. Y. ) Burns Club, organized 1854. 
Peter Pindar (Dr. John Walcot) died 18 10. 
John Wilson ("Dr. Hornbook") died 1839. 



14 



Mrs. Burns, mother of the poet, died 1820. 

Rev. Dr. George H. Baird died 1840. 

William Creech, publisher, died 1815. 

Lucy Johnston (Mrs. Lucy Oswald of Anchincruive) 

died 1798. 
Henry Mackenzie, author of "The Man of Feeling," 

died 1 83 1. 



15 



The poet describes his favorite authors in a letter to 
John Murdoch, 1783. 



i6 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 

16 



The Scottish Parliment sanctions the Union, 1707. 



17 



Brodie, of Brodie, died 1824. 



IS 



'Burnsiana, " vol. i, issued 1892. 



19 



"Burns Chronicle," Vol. III., edited by D. 
M 'Naught, issued 1894. 



20 



Mrs. Candlish, the Miss vSmith of the " Mauchline 

Belles", died 1854. 
Mrs. Stephen Kemble, died 1841. 



21 



Dr. John Moore, died 1802. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 17 

22 



" Round Burns' Grave," enlarg-ed edition, published 

1892. 
Margaret Orr (Mrs. Paton) died 1837. 



22> 



Article on Bonnie Jean, by Archibald Munro, in The 

Scotsman, 1894. 
Right Hon. William Pitt, died 1806. 



24 



"Farewell to Clarinda, " sent to Mrs. McLehose, 1788. 
Earlston Burns Club, instituted 1885. 



25 



Birthday of the poet, 1759. 

Poliockshaws Burns Club, instituted 1886. 

Portobello Burns Club, instituted 1892. 

Thornliebank Burns Club, instituted 1891. 

Carlisle Burns Club, instituted 1889. 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher delivered his great ora- 
tion on the poet before the New York Burns 
Club, 1859. 

The Burns' Society of New York, Organized 187 1. 

Monument erected to Highland Mary in Greenock 
Churchyard, 1842, 

"Sonnet on the author's birthday." Composed 1793. 



i8 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 

25t)n contintjteci. 

Foundation stone of the Doon Monument, laid 1820. 

The Glasgow Monument unveiled 1887. 

John Maxwell, of Terraughty and Munches, died 

1814. 
Airdrie Burns Club, instituted 1885. 
Glasgow-Carrick Burns Club, instituted 1859. 
Fairfield Govan Burns Club, instituted 1886. 
Arlington Burns Club, instituted 1887. 
Barlinne Burns Club, instituted 1893. 
Kirn Burns Club, instituted 1892. 
Derby Burns Chib, instituted 1891. 
Edinburgh (Portsburgh) Burns Club, instituted 1894. 



26 



Gabriel Richardson, Provost of Dumfries, died 1820. 
The Poet baptized, 1759. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JANUARY. 



27 



" Isobel Burns," A Memoir, published in 1894. 
Alexander Cunningham, Jeweller, died 181 2. 
Hamilton Burns Club, instituted 1877. 



28 



Rev. Dr. William Dalrymple. Ayr, died 18 14. 

The Poet recommended for Examiner, Excise, 1791, 



29 



John Orr (last survivor of the Batchelor's Club) 
died 1837. 



30 



James, Earl of Glencairn, died 1791. 
Preliminary meeting held to erect statue at Dundee, 
1877. 



31 



Bonnie Prince Charlie, died 1788. 



20 THE BURNS ALMANAC— FEBRUARY. 

FEBRUARY. 
1 



The Poet affiliated a member of Canongate Kilwin- 
ning Lodge, No. 2, 1787. 
*' Hey for a lass wi' a tocher." Composed 1796. 



John Rankin, died 18 10. 

Dundee Burns Club, instituted i860. 

Sir James Hunter Blair, Bart., born 1741. 



The Poet's Portrait painted by Nasmyth, began 1787. 



Burns Chronicle," No. i, edited by John Muir, F. 
S. A. Scot., issued 1892. 



Thomas Carlyle, died 1881. 
Gavin Hamilton, died 1805. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— FEBRUARY. ai 



6 



The Poet petitions for permission to erect headstone 
over the grave of Robert Ferguson, 1787. 

Miss Mary McPherson, donor of the Albany (N. Y.) 
Bums Statue, died 1886. 



The Poet visited Ecclefechan, 1795. 
John Maxwell, of Terraughtie, born 1720. 
Copy of First Kilmarnock edition of the Poems sold 
in Edinburgh for ^572, ($2,860) 1898. 



8 



Mary, Queen of Scots, died 1587. 
Arlington Burns Club instituted 1888. 
Muirkirk Lapraik Burns Club instituted 1893. 



'*0 Lassie, Art Thou Sleeping Yet," sent to Mr. 
Thomson, 1795. 



10 



Peter Hill, bookseller, died 1837. 
Rev. Dr. James Mackinlay, died 1841. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— FEBRUARY 



11 



Right Rev. John Geddes, D. D., died 1799. 



12 



Burns' dog Luath, killed 1784. 



13 



William Burnes, father of the poet, died 1784. 
George Dempster, M. P., died 1818. 
Col. William Fullarton, died 1808. 
William Fisher, " Holy Willie," died 1809. 
Stuart's 5/rtr, started 1789. 



14 



Douglas Graham, ("Tam o' Shanter,") died 1811. 
Second volume "Johnson's Museum, "published 1788. 



15 



Rev. Alexander Moodie, died 1799. 

Rev. Dr. James Steven, died 1824. 

James Burnes, Provost of Montrose, died 1852. 

Janet Gibson, ("Racer Jess,") died 1813. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— FEBRUARY. 23 



16 



Article by John Muir, entitled ''Burns in German," 
Blackwood's Magazine, 1894. 



17 



"The Twa Dogs," completed 1786. 



IS 



George Thomson, died 1851. 

William Dunbar, (" Rattlin' Roaring Willie,") died 
1807. 



19 



Mrs. Scott, (the " Guidwife of Wauchope House,") 

died 1789. 
Rev. Stephen Young, died 181 9. 



20 



Bishop Alexander Geddes, died 1802. 



21 



William Nicol, son of the poet, died 1872. 
Dr. John Moore, London, died 1802. 



24 THE BURNS ALMANAC— FEBRUARY. 

22 



Permission granted to erect headstone on the grave 

of Robert Ferguson, 1787. 
"The Inventory," composed 1786. 
Dr. Adam Ferguson, died 18 16. 
Du7idee Weekly News issued a "Burns Centenary 

Supplement," 1896. 



22> 



Rev. John Russell, Kilmarnock, died 181 7. 



24 



William Gordon, Lord Kenmure, executed 17 15. 
Capt. Matthew Henderson, born 1737. 



25 



The Poet presented with a copy of Johnson's " Lives 

of the Poets," 1789. 
Rev. Joseph Kirkpatrick, died 1824. 



26 



James Johnson, engraver, died 181 1. 
Article entitled " The Burns Centenary," in Cham- 
bers's Journal^ 1859. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC-FEBRUARY. 25 

27 



Jean Armour, born 1767. 



28 

"The Deil's Awa' wi' the Exciseman," composed 

1792. 
Lewis Hay, died 1800. 



29 



26 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 

MARCH. 
1 



The Poet inaugurated Poet Laiireate of Canongate 

Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2, 1797. 
Preface written for volume 2, Johnson's Museum, 

1787. 
Gilbert Burns entered as a F. & A. M., 1786. 
Niel Gow, died 1807. 
Rev. Dr. William M'Quhae, died 1823. 
Article "Burns and Beranger," by Dr. Chas. Mackay 

in 7Jie Nineteenth Centiwy^ 1880. 
James Smith, merchant, Mauchline, boi'n 2765. 



Anabella, sister of the poet, died 1832. 
Prof. John Stuart Blackie, died 1895. 
John Ramsay, Ochtertyre, died 1814. 
Dunoon-Cowal Burns Club, instituted 1896. 



Twin daughters born to the poet, 1788. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 27 



Rev. Dr. Carfrae, died 1822. 



Lord Dare, (William Basil) died 1794. 



6 



James Dalrymple, Orangefield, died 1795. 

Jessie Staig, (Mrs. Miller of Dalswinton) died 1801. 

Ordination of Rev. Dr. James Mackinlay, 1785. 



Bust of the poet unveiled in Westminster Abbev, 
1885. 



8 



William Cruickshank, teacher, died 1793. 
Glas^ow-Ardgowan Burns Club, instituted. 



9 



William Nicol, son of the poet, born 1795. 
John Logan, of Laight and Knockshinnock, died 
1816. 



28 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 



lO 



"All About Burns," published in New York, 1896. 
Glasgow Thistle Burns Club, instituted 1882. 



11 



Rev. Dr. Bowmaker, Dunse, died 1797. 



12 



"There'll Never be Peace till Jamie Comes Hame," 

composed 1781. 
Rev. Thomas Mitchell, Lamington, died 181 1. 



13 



The Poet completes terms for the farm of Ellisland, 

1788. 
John Stewart, Seventh Earl of Galloway, born 1736. 



14 



R. H. Cromek, died 181 2. 
Gen. Dumourier, died 1823. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 29 

15 



Janet Little, died 1818. 



16 



David Doig', Rector of Stirling Grammar School, 
died 1800. 

Peoples' Friend issued a Burns Centenary Supple- 
ment, 1896. 

Lord Dare, (William Basil) born 1763. 

Verses "To Miss Isabella Macleod," composed 1787. 



17 



Agnes Broun, mother of the poet, born 1732. 
Dr. Robert Chambers, died 187 1. 



IS 

Charles K. Sharpe, died 1851. 

Article "The Reid Miniature Portrait of Burns," 

appeared in The Scotsman^ 1892. 
"Tamo' Shanter," printed in Edinburgh Herald^ 

1791. 



30 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 

19 



Lines under the portrait of Fergusson, written 
1787. 



20 



Copy of '* Mary Morison " sent to George Thomson, 
1793- 



21 



•Fair Empress of the Poets Soul," composed 1788. 



22 



Possilpark Burns Club, instituted 1892. 



2Z 



"Burnsiana," volume 4, issued 1894. 



24 



Robert Aitken, writer, A3^r, died 1807, 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 31 

2S 



James Gould, great Collector of Burnsiana, died 
1890. 



26 



Mrs. Burns, the poet's widow, died 1834. 



27 



*'Wilt Thou Be My Dearie ?" composed 1793. 



28 



Manuscript of *' Song of the Whistle," sold in Edin- 
burgh at auction for 230 guineas, 1887. 



29 



Breadalbane, John, 4th Earl of, died 1834. 



30 



Dr. William McGill, died 1807. 

*'The Chevalier's Lament," composed 1788. 



32 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MARCH. 

31 



The Poet appointed to the Excise, 1788. 

Rev. Edward Neilson, died 1824. 

Cast taken of the Poet's cranium, 1834. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 33 



APRIL 
- 1 - 



Funeral day of the Poet's widow, 1834. 
First Epistle to Lapraik, composed 1785. 



Gilbert Burns published his recollections of the poet, 

1798. 
Dr. James Gregory, died 182 1. 



Prof. John Wilson, died 1854. 



Preface to second edition of the poems, written 

1787. 
Captain Riddell of Glenriddel, died 1794. 



Tam 'o Shanter Club, Dumfries, decides to raise 
funds for a Burns Statue, 1877. 



34 THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 

— 6 

Dumfries Statue unveiled, 1882. 



Yes'treen I had a pint of Wine," sent to Mr. 
Thomson, 1793. 



s 



Gilbert Burns, died 1827. 
William Paterson, Kilmarnock, died 1791. 
James Sibbald, bookseller, died 1803. 
Sir John Whitford, Bart, died 1803. 



William Nicol Burns, born 1791. 
Common Place Book, commenced 1787. 



10 



Alexander Nasmyth, died 1840. 
Rev. James Olyphant, died 1818. 
Date of the Poet's Diploma as a member of the Cal- 
edonian Hunt, 1792. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 35 
11 



Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, died 1812. 
Robert Ainslie, died 1838. 



12 



Dr. Currie's edition of the poet's works, issued 1800. 

13 



Robert Heron, died 1807. 

Rev. John Clunie, died 1819. 

Hon. William Maule, (Lord Panmure) died 1852. 



14 



Rev. Dr. Robert Duncan, died 18 15. 
The Poet issued proposals for publishing his poems, 
1786. 

( 

15 



Rev, Dr. A. Murray, died 181 3. 



16 



Battle of CoUoden, 1746. 

Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop, born 1730. 



36 THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 

17 



Rev. Dr. Patrick Wodrow, died 1793. 
Clarinda, born 1759. 



/ 



IS 



Rev. Dr. John Kemp, died 1805. 



19 



Mrs. M'Murdo, died 1836. 



20 



"To a Mountain Daisy," composed 1786. 
Earl of Buchan, died 1829. 
John Murdoch, schoolmaster, died 1824. 
Robert Riddell, of Glenriddel, died 1794. 



21 



New edition of poems, issued at Edinburgh, 1787. 
William Nicol, died 1797. 
Second Epistle to Lapraik, composed 1785. 
The Ballarat (Australia) Statue, unveiled 1887. 
William Creech, publisher, born 1745. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 37 

^ 22 



Robert Muir, wine merchant, died 1788. 



22> 



William Wordsworth, died 1820. 



2A 



Jane Cruickshank, (Mrs. James Henderson) "The 

Rose-bud," died 1835. 
Dr. James McKittrick Adair, died 1802. 



25 



Maxwell Bvirns, died 1799. 



26 

Rev. Dr. David Shaw, died 1810. 
The Poet promoted to Dumfries First Division, Ex- 
cise, 1792. 



27 



"The Soldier's Return," composed 1793. 



38 THE BURNS ALMANAC— APRIL. 

28 



Rev. George Smith, died 1823. 

Dr. William Greenfield, died 1827. 

John Tennant, (" Auld Glen,") died 1810. 



29 



Rev. James Gillespie, died 1806. 

Prof. James Candlish, Edinburgh, born 1806. 



30 



Alexander Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, died 1796. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC—MA Y. 39 



MAY, 
- 1 



James Hogg, elected poet laureate of Canongate 
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2, 1835. 

Lockhart's '* Life of Burns," reviewed by Prof. Wil- 
son in Blackwood' s Magazine^ 1828. 

Rev. Dr. William M'Quhae, born 1737. 



David Siller, died 1830. 



Epistle to Gavin Hamilton recommending a boy, 
written 1786. 

4 



John Anderson, hero of the song, "John Anderson 
my Jo," died 1832. 



The Poet and Robert Anislie started on Tour 

through the South of Scotland, 1787. 
Adelaide (South Australia) Statue unveiled 1894. 
Rev. Archibald Laurie died 1837. 



40 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MAY. 



6 



John Wilson, publisher, died 182 1. 
" Fair Maid you need not take the hint," composed 
1787. 



John Lapraik, died 1807. 
Crawford Tait, Harvieston, died 1832. 
Ode, '' Sacred to the Memory of Mrs Oswald,'* first 
published in The Star, 1789. 



8 



'The Land of Burns," by Hon. Wallace Bruce, 
published in New York, 1879. 



Kilmarnock Standard re'pvmts Rev. P. H. Waddeil's 
Centenary (1859) Address, 1891. 



10 



Dr. David Irving, died i860. 
Rev. William Inglis, died 1826. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC.~MA Y. 41 



11 



Freedom of Burgh of Jedburgh conferred upon 

the Poet, 1787. 
Earl of Chatham, died 1778. 



12 



Captain Francis Grose, died at Dublin, 1791. 
Dr. Alexander Wood, Edinburgh, died 1807. 



13 



William Tennant,{" Preacher Willie,") died 1813. 
Epistle to William Creech, composed 1787. 



14 



Final interview between the Poet and Highland 

Mary, 1786. 
Robert Burns Jr., died 1857. 



15 



" Epistle to a young friend," composed 1786. 
Highland Mary left Ayrshire for the West Highlands 
1786. 



42 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MA Y. 

16 



Rev. Dr. James Muirhead, died 1808. 
Rev. Dr. Thomas Somerville, died 1830. 



17 



Rev. Archibald Alison, died 1839. 



IS 



Copy of "Delia, "sent to the editor of The Star, 
1789. 



19 



The poet was made a Royal Arch Mason, 1787, 
Archibald Skirving, artist, died 18 19. 



20 



*' Robert Burns, A Centenry Ode," by Hunter Mac- 
Culloch, issued 1896. 



21 



"Burns Almanac," No. i, issued 1897. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC-MAY. 43 

22 



" Rantin' Rovin' Robin," composed 1785. 



2i 



The Poet acted as D. P. G. M., St. James's Lodge, 
Tarbolton, 1788. 



24 



Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop, died 1815. 
Earl of Selkirk (4th) died 1799. 

Arent Schuyler de Peyster, appointed Colonel Dum- 
fries Volunteers, 1795. 



25 



Dinner in London in aid of Mausoleum fund. 18 16, 



26 



Jessie Lewars (Mrs. Thomson), died 1855. 
Francis Joseph Hayden, died 1829. 



27 



Lord Monboddo, died 1799. 



44 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MA Y. 

28 



"Though Cruel Fate," composed 1785. 



29 



Epitaph on Robert Ruisseaux, composed 1785. 
William Marshall, poet, died 1833. 



30 



Article on Burns and Scottish song-, by Robert Ford 
in The Peoples' Friend^ 1892. 



31 



" Mark Yonder Pomp of Costly Fashion," composed 

1795. 
Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., died 1867. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 45 



JUNE. 
- 1 



"Address of Beelzebub," composed 1785. 
Mr. White, Rector Dumfries Academy, died 1825. 
Drama entitled " Robert Burns " produced at The 
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 1896. 



Rev. John Mutrie, died 1785. 



3 



" Logan Braes," composed 1796. 

Jessie Lewars married to James Thomson, 1799. 



" Guid Mornin' to your Majesty," composed 1786. 
Gen. Burgoyne, died 1792, 



Miss Alexander, "the Lass of Ballochmvle," died 

1843. 
Robert Burns, architect, Edinburgh, died 1815. 
Rev. John Robertson, Kilmarnock, died 1799. 



46 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 



6 



A Burns Statue for Glasgow, suggested by an article 
in The Citize?t^ 1872. 

Article "A French estimate of Burns" in Glasgow 
Herald, 1892. 



"On a Scotch bard gone to the West Indies," 
composed 1786. 



8 



'Adown winding Nith I did wander, "composed 1793. 



The Poet returned to Mauchline after his Border 

Tour, 1787. 
Jean Armour returned to Mauchline from Paisley, 

1786. 



10 



'A Bard's Epitaph," composed 1786. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 47 
11 



Prof. Dugald Stewart, died 1828. 

Rev. Dr. William Robertson, died 1793. 



12 



The Poet took up his residence at Ellisland, 1788. 
John Gibson Lockhart, born 1794. 



13 



Mrs. Thompson, (Betty Burns,) died 1873. 



14 



Agnes Tennant, ("Nancy,") died 1787. 



15 



Thomas Campbell, died 1843. 



16 



Rev. John Skinner, died 1807. 



17 



Miss Eliza Burnet, of Monboddo, died 1790. 



48 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 

18 



'Burnsiana," Vol. VI, published 1897. 
'Address To The Toothache," composed 1789. 



19 



James Boswell, of Auchinleck, died 1795. 

John Maxwell, of Munches, died 18 14. 

Patrick Brydone, F. R. S., died 1818. 

John Kennedy, Factor, Dumfries House, died 181 2. 



20 



From thee Eliza, I must go," composed 1786. 



21 



Description of Tour in Galloway, sent to Mr. D. 

McCuUoch, 1794. 
Samuel Mitchelson, died 1788. 



22 



"The Lass o' Ballochmyle," composed 1786. 
"The Contemporaries of Burns," published 1840. 



22> 



The Poet acted as D. M. of St. James's Lodge, 1786. 
W. Scott Douglas, died 1883. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 49 

24 



Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, died 1827. 
Sir James Hall, of Douglass, died 1832. 
Rev. George Maxwell, died 1807. 
William Smellie, printer, died 1795. 



25 



"Logan Water," sent to Mr. Thomson, 1793. 
St. James's Lodge United with St. David's Lodge, 
Tarbolton, 1781. 



26 



Jessie Lewars presented by the Poet with the Scots 
Musical Museum, 1796. 



27 



Alexander H. Smith, "Antique Smith," convicted of 
forging Burns and other manuscripts, 1893. 

Isabella, sister of the poet, born 1771. 

David Ramsay, (Edinburgh Coiiranf)^ died 18 13. 

Earl of Strathallan, (" Strathallan's Lament,") died 
1765. 



so THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUNE. 

28 



First Version of poem "Written in Friars Carse," 
composed 1788. 



29 



Mary Morison, died at Mauchline, 1791. 



30 



William Roscoe, died 1831. 

John Davidson, *' Souter Johnie," died 1806. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL Y. 51 



JULY. 
- 1 



John Goudie, Alloway, died 1842. 

Sir James Hunter Blair, Bart., died 1787. 



Article on ''The Duchess of Gordon," by J. M. 
Bulloch, in The New Illustrated Magazine 1897. 



Jean, daughter of Gilbert Burns, died 18 15. 



The Poet initiated into St. David's Lodge, Tarbolton, 

1781. 
Monument at Doon, finished 1823. 
The Poet starts for Brow, 1796. 
William Simpson, schoolmaster, died 181 5. 
The Penny Poets No. 5, "Robert Burns," published 

1895. 



52 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL V. 



Mrs.Riddell and the Poet had a memorable interview, 

1796. 
David Dunn, schoolmaster, died 18 10. 



** Last May a braw wooer cam' down the lang glen," 

composed 1795. 
Poem entitled "The Tomb of Burns," by William 

Wallace, in T/ie Spectator^ 1895. 
George Augustus Elliott, died 1790. 



Rev. Dr. Thomas Blacklock, died 1791. 
Edmond Burke, died 1797. 



Ayr Monument unveiled, 1891. 
Fitz-Green Halleck, born 1790. 
W. E. Henley's Essay on Burns, written 1897. 



9 



Francis Wallace Burns, Poet's son, died 1803. 
Alexander Marshall, famous MauchUne Burns Guide, 
died 1898. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL Y. 53 
10 



John Burns, brother of the Poet, born 1769. 
Dr. Robert Chambers, born 1802. 



11 



Epistle to Hugh Parker, composed 1788. 



12 



Letter addressed to Mr. Thomson soliciting loan of 

five pounds, 1796. 
"Fairest Maid on Devon's Banks," composed 1796. 
Epistle from Janet Little, addressed to the Poet, 

1789. 
Alexander Williamson, Balgray, died 1805. 
Article on Alexander Nasmyth, by the Rev. P. 

Anton in TJie People's Friend^ 1897. 



13 



Leslie Bailey, (Mrs. Cunningham of Logie), died 

1843. 
Lady Winfred Maxwell Constable, died i8or. 



14 



George Thompson wrote his last letter to the Poet, 
1796. 



54 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL Y. 

15 



Burns Exhibition, opened at Glasgow, 1896. 
John Ballantyne, banker, Ayr, died 181 2. 



16 



Rev. David Grant, died 1791, 



17 



Letter to David Bryce, "I am now fixed for the 

West Indies in October," 1786. 
Battle of Killiecrankie, 1689. 



IS 



Statue at Irvine unveiled, 1896. 
The Poet returned from Brow, 1796. 
Last letter written by Burns, (addressed to his father- 
in-law), 1796. 
Lord President Dundas, born 17 13. 



19 



William Stewart, companion of the Poet, died 181 2. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL Y. 55 
20 



John McLeod, of Raasay, died 1787. 



21 



The day on which the poet died, 1796. 

Great Centenary Demonstration held at Ayr, Dun- 
fries, etc., 1896. For full accounts see Bums 
Chronicle, Vol. VI. 

First Meeting- of the Greenock Burns Club, t8oi. 
Bust of the Poet, by D. W. Stevenson, unveiled in 
Tullie House, Carlisle, England, 1898. 



■ ^ — 22 

Assignment made by the Poet of his works, 1786. 
John Ballantyne, banker, Ayr, born 1743. 



_23 

Inaugural Meeting of the Dundee Burns Society, 

1896. 
Foundation Stone of the Burns Memorial, at Mauch- 

line, laid 1896. 



56 THE BURNS ALMANAC— JUL Y. 



24 



The Poet's remains removed from his house to the 

Town Hall, 1796. 
William, brother of the Poet, died 1790. 
Article on George Thomson, in the Kilmarnock 

Sta7idard^ 1897. 



25 



Funeral day of the Poet, 1796. 
Maxwell Burns, born 1796. 

The Poet presided as D. G. M., Tarbolton Lodge, 
1787. 



26 



Burns Statue unveiled on Thames Embankment, 
1884. 



27 



The Poet elected D. M. St. James's Lodge, 1784. 
Obituary notice of the Poet appeared in London 
Herald^ 1796. 



28 



Mrs. Dugald Stewart, (Miss Cranston), died 1838. 
Prof. John Stuart Blackie, born 1809. 
The Poet promoted to Dumfries 3rd. Division Excise, 
1790. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— JULY. 57 

29 



Alexander Weir, merchant, died 1819. 



30 



William Burns, brother of the Poet, born 1767. 



31 



Dr. James Currie, died 1805. 

"Scots Wha Hae," composed (according to Mr. 
Syme), 1793. 



58 THE BURNS ALMANAC— AUGUST. 



AUGUST. 
— 1 — 



Rev. James Young, Cumnock, died 1795. 
Highland Mary Statue at Dunoon, unveiled 1896. 



Autobiographical sketch sent to Dr. John Moore, 
1787. 



Sir Harris Nicolas, died 1848. 



First epistle to Mr. Graham, of Fintrv, composed 

1788. 
Lady Elizabeth Cunningham, died 1804. 



The Poet and Jean Armour legally married, 1788. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC-AUGUST. 59 



Festival in honor of the Poet's sons held at Ayr, 1844. 

Rev. Walter Young, died 18 14. 

David Allan, printer, died 1796. 

Stephen Clark, musician, died 1797. 

The Sydney (Australia) Memorial wreath of flowers, 

enclosed in a hugh block of ice, received in 

Dumfries, 1896. 



The Kirk's Alarm," composed 1789. 



s 



** Montgomery's Peggy," composed 1784. 
William Muir, wine merchant, born 1758. 



*' Whistle and I'll come to you," composed 1793. 
Kilmarnock Memorial Statue, unveiled 1879. 
Catalogue of the M'Kie Burnsiana Library, published 
1883. 



6o THE BURNS ALMANAC— AUGUST. 



lO 



Sir Robert Laurie, Maxwelton, died 1804. 
Second epistle to Mr. Graham, of Fintry, composed 
1789. 



11 



Alexander Tennant, (''Singin' Sannock"), died 1841, 



12 



James Glencairn Burns, born 1794. 



13 



Fourth Volume, Scots Musical Museum, published 
1792. 

George Gebbie, Burns scholar and publisher, Phila- 
delphia, Pa., died 1892. 



14 



Rev. James Shepard, Muirkirk, died 1799. 



15 

Sir Walter Scott, born 1771. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC—AUGUST. 6i 



16 



Letter regarding '* Man was Made to Mourn," sent 
to Mrs. Dunlop, 1788. 



17 



Dr. Adam Smith, died 1790. 

Article entitled "A Glimpse of Clarinda," by Dr. 
James Adams, appeared in Glasgow Daily Mail, 

1895. 



IS 



Francis Wallace Burns, born 1789. 

Dr. James Beattie, died 1803. 

The Poet acted as D. M., St. James's Lodge, 1786. 



19 



Samuel Clark, writer, died 18 14. 



20 



The Poet visited Kenmore, 1787. 
Ann Rankine, (Mrs. Merry), died 181. 



62 THE BURNS ALMANAC— AUGUST. 



21 



Unveiling of the Highland Mary panel in the Ayr 

Statue, by the Hon. Wallace Bruce, 1895. 
John, Earl of Mar, died 1825. 



22 



'The Holy Fair," composed 1785. 



22> 



William Simpson, of Ochiltree, born 1758. 
Alexander Wilson, author of "Watty and Meg," died 

1813. 
Robert Aiken, (writer, Ayr), born 1739. 



24 



Rev. Dr. Blacklock, addressed a poetical epistle to 
the Poet, 1789. 



25 



The Poet started on his Highland Tour, 1787. 
Andrew Strahan, publisher, died 1831. 



26 



The Poet knelt at the tomb of Sir John the Graham, 
1787. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— AUGUST. 63 

27 



Gavin Hamilton's Mother and her family visited by 
the Poet, 1787. 



28 



John Francis Erskine, Earl of Mar, died 1825. 



29 



'• On the Seas and Far Away," composed 1794. 
The Poet visited Taymouth, 1787. 
Rev. William Dalrymple, born 1723. 



30 



David Tennant, (''The Manly Tar"), died 1839. 
"Theniel Menzie's Bonie Mary," composed 1787. 



31 



Dr. James Currie, died 1805. 



64 THE BURNS ALMANAC—SEPTEMBER. 



SEPTEMBER. 
1 



Public Library opened in Dumfries, 1793. 



Blair Athol visited by the Poet, 1787. 
Thomas Telford, engineer, died 1834. 



3 



Robert Burns Jr., born 1786. 

The Poet listens to sermon by the Rev. Jas. Stevens, 
(The Calf), 1786. 



Rev. Dr. Blacklock suggested that the Poet visit 

Edinburgh, 1786. 
The Burns Federation decided to issue an Annual 

'' Burns Chronicle," 1891. 



Robert Fergusson, born 1751. 

The Poet visited the Falls of Foyers, 1787. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— SEPTEMBER. 65 



James Clark, teacher, died 1825. 
Bolton Burns Club, instituted 1881. 



Colloden Muir, visited by the Poet, 1787. 



s 



The Poet enrolled as a member of the Caledonian 

Archers, 1792. 
Sir S. Brydges Egerton, died 1837. 



9 



"The Day Returns," composed 1788. 



10 



"Tam Samson's Elegy", composed 1786. 
Mary Wolstonecraft, died 1797. 



11 



Jean Lorimer, "Chloris," died 1831. 
Colin Rae Brown, died 1897. 



66 THE BURNS ALMANAC-SEPTEMBER. 



12 



The Poet's remains placed in the Mausoleum, 1815, 
William Tytler, of Woodhouselee, died 1792. 



13 



Third epistle to Lapraik, composed 1785. 
Lord Maitland, died 1839. 
Charles James Fox, died 1806. 



w 



Rev. Dr. Andrew Shaw, died 1805. 

Foundation Stone of the Kilmarnock Memorial, laid 



1 



Crossgates Burns Club, instituted 1889, 



15 



Burns Statue unveiled at Aberdeen, 1892. 
Mrs. M. Henri, (daughter of Mrs. Dunlop), died 
1792. 



16 



The Poet returned to Edinburgh from his Highland 
tour, 1787. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— SEPTEMBER. 67 

17 



Epistle to the Rev. John McMath, written 1785. 
Mrs. Ronald, Bennals, died 1838. 



18 



Monument erected in St. Michael's Churchyard, 1815. 



19 



Douglas Ainslie, died 1850. 



20 



*' The Burns Scrap Book," issued in New York, 1893 



21 



Sir Walter Scott, died 1832. 



22 



She says she lo'es me best of a','' composed 1794. 



22> 



Sir Adam Ferguson, of Kilkerran, died 1813, 



§8 THE BURNS ALMANAC—SEPTEMBER. 



24 



"O Willie brewed a peck o'maut," composed 1789. 
John, seventh Earl of Glencairn, died 1796. 



25 

Rev. James Grey, died 1830. 



26 



James McKie, publisher, died 1891. 
The Paisley Statue unveiled, 1896, 



27 



Sir Thomas Miller, Bart., died 1789. 



28 



Gilbert Burns, born 1760. 



29 



John, fourth Duke of Athol, died 1830. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC—SEPTEMBER. 69 
30 



Burns Statue at Albany, (N.Y.), unveiled 1888. 

Agnes Burns, born 1762. 

The Poet presented four volumes to the Subscription 

Library, Dumfries, 1793. 
Mrs. Findley, (Miss Markland), died 1851. 



70 THE BURNS ALMANAC— OCTOBER. 

OCTOBER. 
1 



The Poet raised to the Sublime Degree of Master 

Mason, 1781. 
Charles Tennant, ("Wabster Charlie"), died 1838. 



Burns Statue unveiled in Central Park, New York, 
1880. 



3 - 



Edward Whigham, (Provost of Sanquhar), died 1823. 



Ballad of the Whistle, composed 1789. 

Mr. McWhinnie, writer, Ayr, and subscriber for 

twenty copies of the Kilmarnock edition, died 

1819. 



Date of second epistle to Mr. Graham, of Fintry, 
1791. 

"Burns' Clarinda," edited by John D. Ross, pub- 
lished at Edinburgh, 1897. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— OCTOBER. v 



6 



Final accounting between the Poet and Mr. Wilson, 
printer, 1786. 



'Farewell the Bonnie Banks of Ayr," composed 1786. 



8 



Hon. Henry Erskine, died 181 7. 



James Brash, bookseller, died 1835. 

Sir Alexander Boswell, Bart., born 1775. 



10 



Allan Masterton appointed writing master to Edin- 
burgh High School, 1789. 



11 



Rev. Dr. William Peebles, died 1826. 
Burns Monument unveiled at Leith, 1898. 



72 THE BURNS ALMANAC— OCTOBER. 



12 



William Tytler, of Woodhouselee, born 1781. 



13 



Dr. William Maxwell, died 1834. 
William Motherwell, born 1797. 



14 



Rev. Dr. Andrew Mitchell, died 181 1. 
Rev. Mr. Lawson, Kirkmahoe, died 1796. 



15 



Allan Ramsay, born 1686, 

Dr. James Anderson, of The Bee, died 1808. 



16 



Robert Ferg-usson, died 1774. 
Dundee Statue unveiled, 1880. 

Final contest for the Whistle occured at Friars Carse, 
1789. 

Mrs. Perochen, (daughter of Mrs. Dunlop), died 
1825. 

The Poet elected an honorary member of St. John's 
Lodge, Kilm-arnock, 1786. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— OCTOBER. 73 

17 



Isa Craig- Knox, born 1831. 

Rev. William Boyd, of Fen wick, died 1828. 



18 



Letter to Miss Alexander, of Balloclimyle, 1786. 



19 



" The Lover's Morning Salutation,'' composed 1794. 
Charles Hay, (Lord Newton), died t8ii. 
Rev. Dr. Laurie, died 1799. 
Rev. Dr. Candlish, died 1873. 



20 



Highland Mary, died 1786. 

"To Mary in Heaven," composed 1789. 

The Poet returned to Edinburgh, 1787. 



21 



"On Captain Grose's Peregrinations," composed 

1789. 
Epistle to Dr. Blacklock, composed 1789. 
David Staig, Provost of Dumfries, died 1826. 



74 THE BURNS ALMANAC— OCTOBER. 

22 



Clarinda, died 1841. 

Grace Aitken, died 1857. 

Sir James Shaw, Bart, died 184; 

David Watt, miller, died 1823. 



22> 



The Poet introduced to Prof. Dugald Stewart, 1786. 



2\ 



' Lines on Meeting with Lord Dare," composed 1786. 



25 



" Tullochgorum," pronounced ''the best Scotch song- 

ever Scotland saw," 1787. 
Cupar Burns Club, inaugurated 1893. 



26 



The Poet affiliated with St. John's Lodge, 1786. 



27 



The Poet presented with Ritson's collection of 

EnglivSh songs, 1794. 
Baron Panmure, born 1771. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC-OCTOBER. 75 



28 

William Dndo^eon, died 1813. 



29 - 

Allan Cunnino^ham, died 1842. 



30 



Andrew Hunter Aiken, died 1832. 
"Epistle to Major Logan," composed 1786. 
Archibald, eleventh Earl of Eglinton, died 1796. 



31 



London Burns Club, instituted 1868. 

Hallowe'en. 

John Niven, died 1822. 

Jean Glover, born 1758. 



76 THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 



NOVEMBER. 

— 1 — 



William Motherwell, died 1835. 

St. Rollox Burns Club, instituted 1889. 



Isabel Pagan, died 182 1. 

The Tarn o' Shanter Inn, Ayr, sold at public auction 
for ;^3i9o, 1892. 



Edinburgh Magazine contained critique on the Poet's 

writings, 1786. 
Rev. William M'Morine, died 1832. 
Margaret Kennedy, ("Young Peggy"), born 1766. 



Mrs. Bruce, (Clackmannan), died 1791. 
Impromptu sonnet on Mrs. Riddel's birthday, com- 
posed 1793. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 77 



" My Chloris, mark how green the groves, " com- 
posed 1794. 



6 



Robert Heron, born 1764. 
Burnsiana, Vol. V, issued 1895. 



"Lassie wi' the Lint White Locks," composed 1794, 



The Poet defends the house of Stuart in a letter to 
71ie London Star, 1788. 



'To a Mouse," composed 1785. 



10 



Rev. Dr. Thomas Blacklock, born 1721. 
Sir Gay Carleton, (Lord Dorchester), died 1808. 
James McPherson,("McPherson's Fare well"), hanged 
at Banff, 1700. 



78 THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 
11 



William Burnes, the Poet's father, born 1721. 
Lease of EUisland surrendered, 1791. 
First meeting of the Bachelor's Club, Tarbolton, 
1780. 



12 



Sir William Forbes, Bart., died 1806. 



13 



Battle of Sherrifmuir, 17 15. 

John Stewart, seventh Earl of Galloway, died 1806. 



14 



Anabella Bums, sister of the poet, born 1764. 

Miss Susan Ferrier, died 1844. 

Duchess of Albany, died 1789. 

Sir Roger Curtis, Admiral, died 18 16. 



15 



" Burns' Bonnie Jean," edited by John D. Ross, pub- 
lished in New York, 1897. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 79 

16 



Dr. James Adair and Miss Charlotte Hamilton, 
married 1789. 



17 



Fitz-Green Halleck, died 1867. 



IS 



James Glencairn Burns, died 1865. 

Song "The Lass of Ballochmyle, " sent to Miss 

Alexander, 1786. 
John M'Diarmed, Dumfries, died 1852. 



19 



James Fergusson, (Craigdarroch), died 1787. 
" O Phillis, happy be that day," composed 1794. 



20 



" Contented wi' little and can tie wi' mair," composed 

1795- 
Gavin Hamilton, baptised 1751. 



21 



Elizabeth Riddell Burns, born 1792. 
James Hogg, died 1835. 



8o THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 

22 



New Brig, Ayr, opened 1786. 



22> 



Burns manuscript forgeries exposed by Edinburgh 
Evening Dispatch, 1892. 



24 



John Syme, died 1831. 

Robert Bums Club, of Chester, Pa., organized 1879. 



25 



John Gibson Lockhart, died 1854. 



26 

Col. De Peyster, died 1822. 



27 



The Poet left Mossgiel for Edinburgh, 1786. 
Capt. Matthew Henderson, died 1788. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— NOVEMBER. 8i 



28 



William Wallace, sheriff, died 1786. 
The Poet arrived in Edinburgh, 1786. 



29 



William Read, bookseller, died 1831. 



30 



" Robert Burns ; an anniversary poem, " by Duncan 
MacGregor Crerar, published 1885. 



82 THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 



DECEMBER. 
1 



Complete copy of "The Lea Rig," sent to Mr. 
Thomson, 1792. 



" My Bonie Mary," composed 1788. 



'Address to Edinburgh," composed 1786. 



"Isobel Burns, (Mrs. Begg), died 1858. 
Thomas Carlyle, born 1795. 

Alexander Findlater, excise collector, died 1839. 
John M'Murdo, died 1803. 



Duchess of Athole, died 1790. 
James Perry, editor, died 182 1. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 83 



Final interview between the Poet and Clarinda, 
1791. 

First letter to Clarinda, written 1787. 

Song, "Once mair I hail thee, thou gloomy Decem- 
ber," composed 1792. 

Mrs. Oswald, of Auchencriuve, died 17S8. 



Allan Cunningham, born 1784. 

The Poet introduced to the brethern of Canongate 
Kilwinning Lodge, 1786. 



8 



Elizabeth Burns, " Sonsie, vSmirking, dear-bought 
Bess," (Mrs. John Bishop), died 181 7. 

Accident to the Poet which confined him to his room 
for six weeks, 1787. 

Prof. Andrew Dalzell, died 1806. 

Mary, Queen of Scots, born 1542. 



Henry Mackenzie's article on the Poet appeared in 

The Lounger^ 1786. 
Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, died 18 15. 



84 THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 

lO 



Philadelphia, Pa. Burns Statue Association, insti- 
tuted 1893. 

Article, *'The Prose of Burns" appeared in The 
Scotsman, 1887. 



11 



Copy of "Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots," sent to 
Clarinda, 1791. 



12 



Rev. Dr. William Auld, died 1791. 
Thomas Samson, died 1795. 



13 



Lord President Dundas, died 1787. 

John Beugo, engraver, died 1841. 

William Niven, Maybole, died 1844. 

Glasgow Sandyford Burns Club, instituted 1893. 



14 



Rev. Mr. Lawson, Kirkmahoe, died 1796. 
William Wood, actor, died 1802. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 85 

15 



William Burnes and Agnes Broun, married 1757. 
Earl of Eglinton, (Montgomerie of Coilsfield), died 

1819. 
Philadelphia Tam o' Shanter Club, instituted 1883. 
Mrs. Walter Riddell, died 1808. 



16 



The Poet praised his Jacobite Ancestry in a letter to 
Lady Winfield M. Constable, 1789. 



17 



Epigram "To Mr. vSyme," composed 1795. 
"' Song of Death," composed 1791. 



18 



Carlyle's Review of Lockhart's Burns appeared in 

TJie Edinburgh Revtezu^ 1828. 
Rev. John M'Math, died 1825. 



19 



Louis Cauvin, French Teacher, died 1825. 



86 THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 



20 



"Address to the Hao^gis," first published in Cale- 
donian Mercury^ 1786. 



21 



Sir John Sinclair, died 1835. 

Mrs. Margaret M. Inglis, Dumfries, died 1843. 



22 



Rev. Alexander Miller, died 1804. 
Nanse Tannock, died 1858. 



22 



Helen Marie Williams, died 1827. 

William, fourth Duke of Queensberry, died 18 10, 



24 



Gilbert, son of Gilbert Burns, died 1803. 



25 



The Burns Almanac, No. 2, published 1897. 
George Augustus Eliot, born 17 17. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 87 

26 



Hanson's Burns, 2 vols., published in London, 1895. 



27 



The Poet elected a member of St. Andrew's Lodge, 

Dumfries, 1788. 
Copy of "Ae fond Kiss," sent to Clarinda, 1791. 
Dr. Hugh Blair, died 1800. 
Thomas Cadell, publisher, died 1800. 



28 



The Poet wrote his first letter to his father from 
Irvine, 1781. 



29 



'Carlyle on Burns" by John Muir, published 1897. 



30 



The Poet first alludes to Clarinda in a letter to 
Richard Brown, 1787. 



88 THE BURNS ALMANAC— DECEMBER. 



31 



The Poet recited his Birthday Ode in honor of Prince 

Charlie, 1787. 
Gen. Richard Montgomerie, died 1775. 
Lenzie Burns Club, instituted 1895. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 89 



ROBERT BURNvS' FAMILY. 

Robert Burns, born 25th of January, 1759. Died 
at Dumfries, 21st of July, 1796. 

Jean Armour, his wife, born at Mauchline, 27th of 
February, 1765. Died at Dumfries, 26th of March, 
1834. 

children: 

Twins — boy and girl — born 3d of September, 1786. 
^ Robert died 14th day of May, 1857. The oM died 
in infancy. 

Twins, born 3rd of March, 1788. Both died soon 
after birth. 

Francis Wallace, born i8th of August, 1789. Died 
9th of July, 1803. 

William Nicol, born 9th of April, 1791. Died 21st 
February, 1872. 

Elizabeth Riddel, born 21st of November, 1792. 
Died September, 1795. 

James Glencairn, born 12th of August, 1794. 
Died 1 8th of November, 1865. 

Maxwell, born 25th of July, 1796. Died 25th of 
April, 1799. 

WILLIAM BURNES' FAMILY. 

William Burnes, born at Clockenhill, nth of Nov- 
ember, 172 1. Died 13th of February, 1784. 

Agnes Broun, his wife, born in Carrick district, 
17th of March, 1732. Died 14th of January. 1820. 



90 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 



children: 

Robert, born 25th of January, 1759. Died 21st 
of July, 1796. 

Gilbert, born 28th of September, 1760. Died 8th 
of April, 1827. 

Ao^nes, born 30th of vSeptember, 1762. Died 8th 
of April, 1834. 

Annabella, born 14th of November, 1764. Died 
2d of March, 1832. 

William, born 30th of July, 1767. Died 24th of 
July, 1790. 

John, born loth of July, 1769. Died 24th of July, 
1783. 

Isobel, born 27th of June, 1771. Died 4th of 
December, 1858. 



PRICES OBTAINABLE IN 1898 FOR A FIRST 
EDITION OF BURNS. 

Copies measuring; 7 inches ;^3o 

45 

60 

75 

90 

100 

no 

122 

135 

147 

160 

175 

190 



1% 
7/2 

8 



8^8 

8>^ 

8f^ 
83/ 



If in the original boards, and with the label on 

back 200 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 91 

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE FIRST 
EDITION. 

Copies 

Robert Aitken, of Ayr 145 

Robert Muir, Kilmarnock 72 

Gilbert Burns, MossiJ^iel 70 

James vS mi th, Mauchline 41 

Gavin Hamilton, Mauchline 40 

John Logan, Laight 20 

John Kennedy, Dumfries House 20 

iMr. M'Whinnie, Ayr 20 

David Sillar, Irvine 14 

Wm. Niven, Maybole 7 

Walter Morton, Cumnock 6 

John Neilson, Cumnock 5 

The Author 3 

The Printer 70 

Sundry persons 67 

Total 600 



SEVEN EPOCHS IN THE LIFE OF BURNS. 

First Epoch — Alloway. 
Seven years were passed in the Auld Clay Biggin 
at Alloway, from the 25th of January, 1759, until 
the Whitsuntide of 1766. 

vSecond Epoch — Mount Oliphant. 
Eleven years (from his seventh to his eighteenth 
year) were passed on the farm at Mount Oliphant, 
from the Whitsuntide of 1766 until the Whitsuntide 
of 1777. 

Third Epoch — Lochlea. 
Six years (from his eighteenth to his twenty- 
fourth year) were passed on the farm at Lochlea, 
from the Whitsuntide of 1777 until the Martinmas 
of 1783. 



92 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

Fourth Epoch — Mossgiel. 

Three years (from his twenty-fourth to his twenty- 
seventh year) were passed on Mossgiel, from the 
Martinmas of 1783 until the Martinmas of 1786. 

Fifth Epoch — Edinburgh. 

Nearly two years (from his twenty-eighth on into 
his twenty-ninth year) were passed in Edinburgh, or 
in tours to the South, and into the West Highlands. 

Sixth Epoch — Ellisland. 

Three years (from his twenty-ninth to his thirty- 
second year,) from the Whitsuntide of 1788, until 
nearly the end of 1791, were passed at the farm of 
Ellisland. 

Seventh Epoch — Dumfries. 

Five years, from the end of 1791, until the 21st 
of July, 1796, when he died (at the age of thirty- 
seven years and six months,) were passed in the 
town of Dumfries, first in the Wee Vennel, now 
known as Bank Street, and finally in a narrow street 
near the church, now called Burns Street, in mem- 
ory of its having been the last place of residence of 
the National Poet of Scotland. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 93 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

OF 

BURNS' LIFE AND WORKS. 

From the Globe edition of Burns. 
ALLOWAY. 

T759- 

January 25. — Robert Bums bom at Alloway, 
parish of Ayr, in a clay-built cottage, the work of 
his father's own hands. His father, William Burnes 
(so the family name was always written until changed 
by the poet), was a native of Kincardinshire, born 
November 11, 1721. His mother, Agnes Broun, 
born March 17, 1732, was daughter of a farmer in 
Carrick, Ayrshire. The poet's parents were married 
December 15, 1757. William Burnes was then a 
gardner and farm-overseer. 

1765— (^Etat Six). 

Sent to a school at Alloway Mill, kept by one 
Campbell, who was succeeded in May by John 
Murdoch, a young teacher of uncommon merit, 
engaged by William Burnes and four of his 
neighbors, who boarded him alternately at their 
houses, and guaranteed him a small salary. Two 
advantages were thus possessed by the poet — an 
excellent father and an excellent teacher. 

MOUNT OLIPHANT. 

1766 — (Seven). 

William Burnes removed to the farm of Mount 
Oliphant, two miles distant. His sons still attended 



94 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

Alloway school. The books used were a spell- 
ing-book^ the New Testament^ the Bible ^ Mason's Col- 
lection of Prose and Verse^ and Fisher's English 
Grammar. 

1768 — (Nine). 

Murdoch gave up Alloway school. Visiting the 
Burnes family before his departure, he took with 
him, as a present, the play of Titus Andronicus, 
He read part of the play aloud, but the horrors of 
the scene shocked and distressed the children, and 
Robert threatened to burn the book if it was left. 
Instead of it, Murdoch gave them a comedy, the 
School for Love (translated from the French) and an 
English Grammar. He had previously lent Robert 
a Life of Hannibal. "The earliest composition that 
I recollect taking any pleasure in," says the poet, 
**was the Visiofi of Mirza, and a hymn of Addison's 
beginning. How are Thy Servants blest ^ O Lord I 
I particularly remember one half-stanza, which was 
music to my boyish ear, — 

* For though in dreadful whirls we hung 
High on the broken wave ! ' " 

He had found these in Mason's Collection. The 
latent seeds of poetry were further cultivated in his 
mind by an old woman living in the family, Betty 
Davidson, who had a great store of tales, songs, 
ghost-stories, and legendary lore. 

1770 — (Eleven). 

By the time he was ten or eleven years of age he 
was an excellent English scholar, "a critic in sub- 
stantives, verbs, and particles. " After the departure 
of Murdoch, William Burnes was the only instructor 
of his sons and other children. He taught them 
arithmetic, and procured for their use Salmon's 
Geographical Grammar, Derhanis Physics and Astro- 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 95 

Theology, and Rafs Wisdom of God in the Creation. 
These g-ave the boys some idea of Geography, 
Astronomy and Natural History. He had also 
StackJioiise's History of the Bible, Taylor's Scripture 
Doctrine of Original Sin, a volume of EnglisJi His- 
tory (reig-ns of James I. and Charles I.). The 
blacksmith lent the common metrical Life of Sir 
William Wallace (which was read with Scottish fervor 
and enthusiasm), and a maternal uncle supplied a 
Collection of Letters by the wits of Queen Anne's 
reign, which inspired Robert with a strong desire to 
excel in letter- writing. 

1772 — (Thirteen). 

To improve their penmanship, William Burnes 
sent his sons, week about, during the summer 
quarter, to the parish school of Dalrymple, two 
or three miles distant. This year Murdoch was 
appointed teacher of English in Ayr school, and he 
renewed his acquaintance with the Burnes family, 
sending them Pope's Works and "some other poetry. " 

1773 — (Fourteen). 

Robert boarded three weeks with Murdoch at 
Ayr in order to revise his English Grammar. He 
acquired also a smattering of French, and on 
returning home he took with him a French Dictionary 
and French Grammar, and a copy of Telemaque, 
He attempted Latin, but soon abandoned it. 

1774 — Fifteen). 

His knowledge of French introduced him to some 
respectable families in Ayr (Dr. Malcomb's and 
others). A lady left him the Spectator, Pope's 
Homer, and several other books. In this year began 
with him love and poetry. His partner in the 



96 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

harvest-field was a "bewitching creature" a year 
younger than himself, Nelly Kilpatrick, daughter of 
the blacksmith, who sang sweetly, and on her he 
afterwards wrote his first song and first effort at 
rhyme, (9, once I loved a bonnie lass. 

1775 — (Sixteen). 

About this time Robert was the principal laborer 
on the farm. From the unproductiveness of the 
soil, the loss of cattle, and other causes, William 
Burnes had got into pecuniary difficulties, and the 
threatening letters of the factor (the landlord being 
dead) used to set the distressed family in tears. 
The charater of the factor is drawn in the Tale of 
Twa Dogs. The hard labor, poor living, and sorrow 
of this period formed the chief cause of the poet's 
subsequent fits of melancholy, frequent headaches, 
and palpitation of the heart. 

1776 — (Seventeen). 

Spent his seventeenth summer (so in poet's MS. 
British Museum; Dr. Currie altered the date to 
nineteenth) on a smuggling coast in Ayrshire, at 
Kirkoswald, on purpose to learn mensuration, sur- 
veying, etc. He made good progress, though mixing 
somewhat in the dissipation of the place, which had 
then a flourishing contraband trade. Met the 
second of his poetical heroines, Peggy Thomson, on 
whom he afterwards wrote his fine song, Nozv westlin 
winds and slaughVring guns. The charms of this 
maiden "overset his trigonometry and set him off 
at a tangent from the sphere of his studies." On his 
return from Kirkoswald ("in my seventeenth year," 
he writes) he attended a dancing school to "give his 
manners a brush." His father had an antipathy to 
these meetings, and his going "in absolute defiance 
of his father's command" {sic in orig. ) was an 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 97 

*' instance of rebellion " which he conceived brought 
on him the paternal resentment and even dislike. 
Gilbert Burns dissents altogether from this con- 
clusion: the poet's extreme sensibility and regret 
for his one act of disobedience led him unconsciously 
to exaggerate the circumstances of the case. At 
Kirkoswald he had enlarged his reading by the 
addition of Thomson's and Shenst one's Works, and 
among the other books to which he had access at 
this period, besides those mentioned above, were 
some plays of Shakespeare, Allan Ramsay's Works, 
Harvey's Meditations, and a Select Collection of 
English Songs ("The Lark," 2 vols.). This last 
work was, he says, his vade meciim; he pored over it 
driving his cart or walking to labor, and carefully 
noted the true tender or sublime from affectation 
and fustian. He composed this year two stanzas, 
I dream' d I lay %vhere floivers were springing. 

LOCHLEA. 

1777 — (Eighteen). 

William Burnes and family remove to a larger 
farm at Lochlea, parish of Tarbolton. Take possess- 
ion at Whitsunday. Affairs for a time look brighter, 
and all work diligently. Robert and Gilbert have 
^7 per annum each as wages from their father, and 
they also take land from him for the purpose of 
raising flax on their own account. "Though, when 
young, the poet was bashful and awkward in his 
intercourse with women, as he approached manhood 
his attachment to their society became very strong, 
and he was constantly the victim of some fair 
enslaver." (Gilbert Burns.) He was in the secret, 
he says, of half the loves of the parish of Tarbolton. 

1778 — Nineteen). 

"I was," he says, "about eighteen or nineteen 
when I sketched the outlines of a tragedy." The 



98 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

whole had escaped his memory, except a fragment 
of twenty lines: All devil as I am, etc. 

1780 — (Twenty-one). 

The "Bachelors' Club," established at Tarbolton 
by Robert and Gilbert Burns, and five other young- 
men. Meetings were held once a month, and ques- 
tions debated. The sum expended by each member 
was not to exceed threepence. 

1781 — (Twenty-two). 

David Sillar admitted a member of the Bachelors* 
Club. He describes Burns: "I recollect hearing 
his neighbors observe he had a great deal to say for 
himself, and that they suspected his prinhiples (his 
religious principles). He wore the only tied hair in 
the parish, and in the church his plaid, which was 
of a particular color, I think fillemot, he wrapped in a 
particular manner round his shoulders. Between 
sermons we often took a walk in the fields ; in these 
walks I have frequently been struck by his facility 
in addressing the fair sex, and it was generally a 
death-blow to our conversation, however agreeable, 
to meet a female acquaintance. Some book he 
always carried and read when not otherwise em- 
ployed. It was likewise his custom to read at table. 
In one of my visits to Lochlea, in the time of a 
sowen supper, he was so intent on reading, — I think 
Tristram Shandy, — that his spoon falling out of his 
hand made him exclaim in a tone scarely imitable, 
'Alas, poor Yorick! ' " The poet had now added to 
his collection of books Mackenzie's Man of Feeling 
(which he said he prized next to the Bible) and Man 
of the World, Sterne's Works, and Macpherson's 
Ossian. He would appear also to have had the 
poetical works of Young. Among the fair ones 
whose society he courted was a superior young 



THE BURNS ALMANAC, 99 

woman, bearing the impoetical name of Ellison 
Begbie. She was the daughter of a small farmer at 
Galston, but was servant with a family on the banks 
of the Cessnock. On her he wrote a ''song of 
similes," beginning On Cessnock banks there lives a 
lass, and the earliest of his printed correspondence 
is addressed to Ellison. His letters are grave, 
sensible epistles, written with remarkable purity and 
coiTectness of language. At this time poesy was, 
he says, "a darling walk for his mind." The oldest 
of his printed pieces were Winter, a Dirge, the Death 
of Poor Mailie, John Barleycorn, and the three songs 
// was upon a Lammas night, Nozv westlin winds and 
slaiighfring guns, and Behind yon hills ivhere Stinchar 
Jlozvs. We may add to these O Tibbie I hae seen 
the day and Aly father was a fanner. His exquisite 
lyric, O Mary, at thy windozu be, was also, he says, 
one of his juvenile works. 

1782 — (Twenty-three). 

Ellison Begbie refuses his hand. She was about 
to leave her situation, and he expected himself to 
" remove a little further off." He went to the town 
of Irvine. " My twenty-third year," he says, "was 
to me an important era. Partl)^ through whim, and 
partly that I wished to set about doing something in 
life, I joined a flax-dresser in a neighboring town to 
learn his trade, and carry on the business of manu- 
facturing and retailing flax. This turned out a 
sadly unlucky affair. My partner was a scoundrel 
of the first water, who made money by the mystery 
of thieving, and to finish the whole, while we were 
welcoming carousal to the New Year, our shop, by 
the drunken carelessness of my partner's wife, took 
fire, and was burned to ashes ; and left me like a true 
poet, not worth a sixpence."* In Irvine his reading 

* From orig. in Brit. Museum. Burns wrote an interesting 
and affecting letter to his father, from Irvine. Dr. Currie 

LofC. 



loo THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

dates it 1781, which we think is an error. The poet's state- 
ment is corroborated by his brother's narrative, and the stone 
chimney of the room occupied by the poet is inscribed, 
evidently by his own hand, " R. B. 1782." He consoled him- 
self for his loss after this fashion : — 

'* O, why the deuce should I repine, 
And be an ill foreboder ? 
I'm twenty-three, and five feet nine, 
I'll go and be a sodger." 

was only increased, he says, by two volumes of 
Pamela, and one of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, which 
gave him some idea of novels. Rhyme, except 
some religious pieces that are in print, he had given 
up, but meeting with Fergnsson's Scottish Poems, he 
** strung anew his lyre with emulating vigor." He 
also formed a friendship for a young fellow, **a very 
noble character," Richard Brown, and with others of 
a freer manner of thinking and living than he had 
been used to, *'the consequence of which was," he 
says," that soon after I resumed the plough, I wrote 
the Poefs Welcome'' (to his illegitimate child). But 
this was not till the summer of 1 784. Before leaving 
Lochlea he became a Freemason. 



MOSSGIEL. 

1784 — (Twenty-five). 

February 13. — William Bumes died at Lochlea in 
his sixty-fourth year, his affairs in utter ruin. His sons 
and two grown-up daughters ranked as creditors of 
their father for arrears in wages, and raised a little 
money to stock another farm. This new farm was 
that of Mossgiel, parish of Mauchline, which had 
been sub-let to them by Gavin Hamilton, writer (or 
attorney) in Mauchline. They entered on the farm 
in March: "Come, go to, I will be wise," resolved 
the poet, but bad seed and a late harvest deprived 
them of half their expected crop. Poetry was 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. loi 

henceforth to be the only successful vocation of 
Robert Burns. To this year may be assigned the 
Epistle to John Rafikine (a strain of rich humor, but 
indelicate), and some minor pieces. In April or 
May he commenced his acquaintance with "Bonnie 
Jean " — Jean Armour — an event which colored all 
his future life, imparting to it its brightest lights 
and its darkest shadows. 

^7^5— (Twenty-six). 

In January the Epistle to Davie completed: Death 
and Doctor Hornbook wntten about Februar3\ Epis- 
tle to J, Lapraik, April i, 21, and vSeptember 13. 
Epistle to IV. Simpson in May. The Twa Herds, or 
the Holy Tiilzte : this satire was the first of his poetic 
offspring that saw the light (excepting some of his 
songs), and it was received by a certain description 
of the clergy, as well as laity, with a *'roar of 
applause." Burns had now taken his side with the 
*' New Light," or rationalistic section of the church, 
then in violent antagonism to the "Auld Light," or 
evangelistic party, which comprised the bulk of the 
lower and middling classes. To this year belong 
The Jolly Beggars, Haliozueen, The Cotter's Saturday 
Night, Man was made to Monrn, Address to the Dei I, 
To a Mouse, A Winter Night, Holy Willie's Prayer, 
and Ihe Holy Fair (early MS. in British Museum),' 
Epistle to James Smith, etc, 

1786 — (Twenty-seven). 

In rapid succession are produced Scotch Dri7tk, 
The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, The Twa Dogs, 
The Ordi7iation, Address to the Ujico Quid, To a Moun- 
tain Daisy, Epistle to a Yoiing Friend^ A Bards 
Epitaph, The Lament, Despondency, etc. Such a body 
of original poetrj', written within about twelve 
months, — poetry so natural, forcible, and pictur- 



102 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

esque, so quaint, sarcastic, humorous, and tender, — 
had unquestionably not appeared since Shakespeare. 
Misfortunes, however, were gathering round the 
poet. The farm had proved a failure, and the con- 
nection with Jean Armour brought grief and shame. 
He gave her a written acknowledgment of marriage, 
but at the urgent entreaty of her father she con- 
sented that this document should be destroyed. 
The poet was frantic with distress and indignation. 
He resolved on quitting the country, engaged to go 
out to Jamaica as book-keeper on an estate, and, to 
raise money for his passage, arranged to publish his 
poems. Subscription papers were issued in April. 
In the meantime, in bitter resentment of the 
perfidy, as he esteemed it, of the unfortunate Jean 
Armour, he renewed his intimacy with a former 
love, Mary Campbell, or "Highland Mar5%" who 
had been a servant in the family of Gavin Hamilton, 
and was nov/ dairy-maid at Coilsfield. He proposed 
marriage to Mary Campbell, was accepted, and Mary 
left her service and went to her parents in Argyle- 
shire, preliminary to her union with the poet. They 
parted on the banks of the Ayr, on Sunday, May 14, 
exchanging Bibles and vowing eternal fidelity. No 
more is heard of Mary until after her death,' which 
took place in October of this year. The poems 
were published in August, an edition of 600 copies, 
and were received with enthusiastic applause. The 
poet cleared about ^20 by the volume, took a 
passage in the first ship that was to sail from the 
Clyde (nothing was said of Mary accompanying 
him), and was preparing to embark, when a letter 
from Dr. Blacklock, offering encouragement for a 
second edition, roused his poetic ambition, and led 
him to try his fortune in Edinburgh. Before start- 
ing he made the acquaintance of "Mrs. Dunlop, the 
most valued and one of the most accomplished of 
his corres[)on dents. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 103 

EDINBURGH. 

November 2S, 1786. — Burns reaches the Scottish 
capital, and instantly becomes the lion of the season. 
He is courted and caressed by the witty, the fashion- 
able, and the learned — by Dugald Stewart, Harry 
Erskine, Hugh Blair, Adam Ferguson, Dr. Robert- 
son, Lord Monboddo, Dr. Gregory, Eraser Tytler, 
Lord Glencairn, Lord Eglinton, Patrick Miller (the 
ingenious laird of Dalswinton), the fascinating Jane, 
Duchess of Gordon, Miss Burnet, etc. Henry Mac- 
kenzie, the "Man of P'eeling," writes a critique on 
the poems in the Lounger^ — the members of the 
Caledonian Hunt subscribe for a hundred copies of 
the new edition, — and the poet is in a fair way, as he 
says, of becoming as eminent as Thomas a Kempis 
or John Bunyan. 

1787 — (Twenty-eight). 

Burns applies for and obtains permission to erect 
a tombstone in Canongate Churchyard over the 
remains of Fergusson the poet. In April appears 
the second edition of the Poems, consisting of 3,000 
copies, with a list of subscribers prefixed, and a 
portrait of the poet. In this edition appeared Death 
and Dr. Hornbook^ the Ordination^ and Address to tlie 
Unco Gidd, which were excluded from the first edition, 
and several new pieces, the best of which are the 
Brigs of Ayr and Tarn Samsofi' s Elegy. On the 5th 
of May the poet sets off on a tour with a young- 
friend, Robert Ainslie, in order to visit the most 
interesting scenes in the south of Scotland. Cross- 
ing the Tweed over Coldstream bridge, Burns knelt 
down on the English side and poured forth, uncov- 
ered, and with strong emotion, the prayer for 
Scotland contained in the last two stanzas of the 
Cotter s Saturday Night. June 4, he was made an 
honorary burgess of the town of Dumfries, after 



I04 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

which he proceeded to Ayrshire, and arrived at 
MauchHne on the 9th of June. "It will easily be 
conceived," says Dr. Currie, "with what pleasure 
and pride he was received by his mother, his 
brothers, and sisters. He had left them poor and 
comparatively friendless ; he returned to them hig-h 
in public estimation, and easy in his circumstances." 
At this time the poet renewed his intimacy with 
Jean Armour. Towards the end of the month he 
made a short Hig^hland tour, in which he visited 
Loch Lomond and Dumbarton, and returning to 
Mauchline, we find him (July 25) presiding as 
Deputy Grand Master of the Tarbolton Mason 
Lodg-e, and admitting Professor Dugald Stewart, 
Mr. Alexander, of Ballochmyle, and others, as hon- 
orary members of the Lodge. On the 25th of 
Aug-ust the poet set off from Edinburgh on a north- 
ern tour with Willliam Nicol of the High vSchool. 
They visited Bannockburn, spent two days at Blair 
with the Duke of Athole and family, proceeded as 
far as Inverness, then by way of Elgin, Fochabers 
(dining with the Duke and Duchess of Gordon), on 
to Aberdeen, Stonehaven, Montrose, where he met 
his relatives the Burneses. Arrived at Edinburgh 
on the 1 6th of September. In December made the 
acquaintance of Clai-inda, or Mrs. M'Lehose, with 
whom he kept up a passionate correspondence for 
about three months. Overset by a drunken coach- 
man, and sent home with a severely bruised knee, 
which confined him for several weeks. Mr. A. 
Wood, surgeon " lang sandy WcxkI," applies to Mr. 
Graham, of Fintr)% Commissioner of Excise, and 
g-ets Burns's name enrolled among the number of 
expectant Excise officers. During all this winter 
the poet zealously assists Mr. James Johnson in his 
publication, the Scots Musical Museum. 

1 788 — Twenty-nine). 
Left Edinburgh for Dumfries to inspect Mr. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 105 

Miller's lands at Dalswinton. Stopped by the way 
at Mossgiel, February 23. Poor Jean Armour, who 
had again loved not wisely, but too well, was living 
apart, separated from her parents, and supported by 
Burns. He visited her the day before his departure 
for Dumfries (apparently February 24), and it is 
painful to find him writing thus to Clarinda: "I, 
this morning as I came home, called for a certain 
woman. I am disgusted with her. I cannot endure 
her. I, while my heart smote me for the profanit}^ 
tried to compare her with my Clarinda; 'twas setting 
the expiring glimmer of a farthing taper beside the 
cloudless glory of the meridian sun. Here was taste- 
less insipidity, vulgarity of soul, and mercenary 
fawning; there, polished good sense, Heaven-born 
genius, and the most generous, the most delicate, 
the most tender passion. I have done with her, and 
she with me." * In less than two months they were 
married ! In this, as in the Highland Mary episode, 
Burns's mobility, or *' excessive susceptibility of 
immediate impressions," % seems something marvel- 
ous, and more akin to the French than the Scotch 
character. Returned to Edinburgh in March, and 
on the 13th took a lease of the farm of EUisland, on 
the banks of the Nith. On the 19th settled with 
Creech, the profits from the Edinburgh edition and 
copyright being about ;i^5oo, of which the poet gave 
;,^i8o to his brother Gilbert, as a loan, to enable 
him to continue (with the family) at Mossgiel. In 
the latter \)3.vt of April Burns was privately married 
to Jean Armour, and shortly afterwards wrote on 
her his two charming songs Of a' the airts the wind 
can blaiv and O, were I on Parnassus hill ! 

* From the original, published in Banffshire Jour naL 

I So defined by Byron, who was himself a victim to this 
"unhappy attribute," See " Don Juan," canto xvi. 97. 



io6 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

ELLISLAND. 

In June the poet went to reside on his farm, his 
wife remaining at Mauchline until a house should be 
built at Ellisland. Formed the acquaintance of 
Captain Riddel, of Glenriddel, a gentleman of liter- 
ary and antiquarian tastes, who resided at Friars 
Carse, within a mile from Ellisland. On 28th June 
wrote Verses in Ftiars Carse Hermitage. August 5, 
the poet at Mauchline made public acknowledgment 
of his marriage before the Kirk Session, at the same 
time giving " a guinea note for behoof of the poor." 
In December conducted Mrs. Burns to the banks of 
the Nith. I /me a ivife o' my ain I 

1789— (Thirty). 

Visited Edinburgh in February, and received 
about jQ^o more of copyright money from Creech. 
August 18, son born to the poet, named Francis 
Wallace. About the same time receiv^ed appoint- 
ment to the Excise. October 16, the great baccha- 
nalian contest for the Whistle took place at Friars 
Carse in presence of the poet. On the 20th of 
October (as calculated, and indeed proved by Mr. 
Chambers) the sublime and affecting lyric, To Mary 
in Heave?i, was composed. Met Grose, the antiquary 
at Friars Carse, and afterwards wrote the humorous 
poem O71 Captain Grose' s Peregidnations. In Decem- 
ber was written the election ballad The Five Carlines. 

1790 — (Thirty-one). 

January 11. — Writes to Gilbert that his farm is a 
ruinous affair. On the 14th, addressing his friend 
Mr. Dunbar, W.vS., relative to his Excise appoint- 
ment, he says: "I found it a very convenient busi- 
iness to have £c^o per annum; nor have I felt any 
of those monilvm^- circumstances in it I was led to 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 107 

fear." The duties were hard; he had to ride at 
least 200 miles ever)^ week, but he still contributed 
largely to the Scots Musical Museum, wrote the elegy 
0?i Captain Matthew Henderson (one of the most 
exquisite of the poet's productions), and in autumn 
produced Tarn 0' Shanter, by universal assent the 
crowning glory and masterpiece of its author. 

1791 — (Thirty-two.) 

In February wrote La^ne^it of Mary Queen of Scots, 
and Lament for James Earl of Gle7icarin. In March 
had his right arm broken by the fall of his horse, 
and was some weeks disabled from writing. In this 
month also occurred an event which probably caused 
deeper pain than the broken arm. First, as Mr. 
Chambers saj^s, ''we have a poor girl lost to the 
reputable world ; " (this was "Anna with the gowden 
locks," niece to the hostess of the Globe Tavern;) 
*'next we have Burns seeking an asylum for a help- 
less infant at his brother's; then a magnanimous 
wife interposing with the almost romantically gen- 
erous offer to become herself its nurse and guardian."'* 
April 9, a third son born to the poet, and named 
William Nicol. At the close of the month the poet 
sold his crop at Ellisland, "and sold it well." 
Declined to attend the crowning of Thomson's bust 
at Ednam, but wrote verses for the occasion. In 
November made a short visit — his last — to Edin- 
burgh, and shortly afterwards wrote his inimitable 
farewell to Clarinda, Aefond kiss and then we sever. 
The fourth stanza of this song Sir Walter Scott said 
contained "the essence of a thousand love tales." 

* Mrs. Burns v/as much attached to the child, who reniained 
with her till she was seventeen years of age, when she married 
a soldier, John Thomson of the StirHng IVIihtia. She is still 
living, and strongly resembles her father. Poor Anna the 
mother felt deeply the disgrace ; she, however, made a dt- cent 
marriage in Leith, but died comparatively young, without any 
family W her husband. 



io8 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 



DUMFRIES. 

At Martinmns (Nov. ii), the poet having disposed 
of his stock and other effects at Ellisland, and sur- 
rendered the lease of the farm to Mr. Miller the 
proprietor, removed with his family to the town of 
Dumfries. He occupied for a year and a half three 
rooms of a second floor on the north side of Bank 
Street (then called the Wee Vennel). On taking up 
his residence in the town, Burns was well received 
by the higher class of inhabitants and the neighbor- 
ing gentry. One of the most accomplished of the 
latter was Mrs. Walter Riddel {7tee Marie Woodley), 
then aged only about eighteen. This lady, with her 
husband, a brother of Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, 
lived on a small estate about four miles from Dum- 
fries, which in compliment to the lady they called 
Woodley Park (now Goldielea). 

1792 — (Thirty -three). 

February 27. — Burns behaved gallantly in seizing 
and boarding a smuggling brig in the vSolway. The 
vessel, with her arms and stores, was sold by auction 
in Dumfries, and Burns purchased four carronades 
or small guns, for which he paid ^:^. These he 
sent, with a letter, to the French Convention, but 
they were retained at Dover by the Custom-house 
authorities. This circumstance is supposed to have 
drawn on the poet the notice of his jealous superiors. 
He warmly sympathized with the French people in 
their struggle against despotism, and the Board of 
Excise ordered an inquir)^ into the poet's political 
conduct, though it is doubtful whether any repri- 
mand was ever given him. In September Mr. 
George Thomson, Edinburgh, commenced his pub- 
lication of national songs and melodies, and Bums 
cMTdialh' lent assistance to the undertaking, but 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 109 

disclaimed all idea or acceptance of pecuniary re- 
muneration. On the 14th of November he trans- 
mitted to Thomson the song of Highland Mary, and 
next month one of the most arch and humorous of 
all ditties, Duncan Gray cam here to woo. 

1793 — (Thirty -four). 

The poet continues his invaluable and disinterested 
labors for Mr, Thomson's publication. In July he 
makes an excursion into Galloway with his friend 
Mr. Syme, stamp distributor, and according to that 
gentleman (though Burn's own statement on the 
subject is different), he composed his national song, 
Scots wha hae, in the midst of a thunder-storm on the 
wilds of Kenmure. The song was sent to Thomson 
in September, along with no less popular, Auld Laiig 
Syne. At Whitsuntide the poet removed from the 
" Wee Vennel " to a better house (rent ^^8 per an- 
num) in the Mill-hole Brae (now Burns Street), and 
in this house he lived until his death. His widow 
continued to occupy it till her death, March 26, 1834. 

1 794 — (Thirty-five). 

At a dinner-party at Woodley Park, on one occa- 
sion the poet, like most of the guests, having ex- 
ceeded in wine, was guilty of some act of rudeness 
to the accomplished hostess which she and her 
friends resented very warmly. A rupture took 
place, and for nearly a twelvemonth there was no in- 
tercourse between the parties. During this interval 
Burns wrote several lampoons on Mrs. Riddel, 
wholly unworthy of him as a man or as a poet. Ap- 
ril 4, Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, died unreconciled 
to Burns, yet the latter honored his memory with a 
sonnet. August 12, another son born to the poet, 
and named James Glencaim. During this autumn 



no THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

and winter Burns wrote vsome of his finest songs, in- 
vspired by the charms of Jane Lorimer, the "Chloris" 
of many a lyric. In November he composed his 
lively song, Contented wV little and cantie wV mair, 
which he intended as a pictrire of his own mind; but 
it is only, as Mr. Chambers says, the picture of one 
aspect of his mind. Mr. Perry of the Morning 
Chronicle wishes to engage Burns as a contributor to 
his paper, but the "truly generous offer" is declined, 
lest connection with the Whig journal should injure 
his pro.spects in the Excise. For a short time he 
acted as supervisor, and thought that his political 
sins were forgiven. 

1 795 — (Thirty-six). 

In January the poet composed his manly and in- 
dependent song For a' that and a' that. His inter- 
course with Maria Riddel is renewed, and she sends 
him occasionally a book, or a copy of verses, or a 
ticket for the theatre. He never relaxes his genial 
labors for the musical works of Johnson and Thom- 
son, and he writes a series of election ballads in favor 
of the Whig candidate, Mr. Heron. He joins the 
Dumfriesshire corps of Volunteers, enrolled in the 
month of March, and writes his loyal and patriotic 
song, Does haughty Gaul invasion threat ? also his fine 
national strain. Their groves of sweet 7nyrtle let foreign 
lands reckon, and one of the best of his ballads. Last 
May a braw wooer. The poet's health, however, gives 
way, and premature age has set in. 

1796 — (Thirty-seven). 

The decline of the poet is accelerated by an acci- 
dental circumstance. One night in January he sat 
late in the Globe Tavern. There was deep snow on 
the ground, and in going home he sank down, over- 
powered b)^ drowsiness and the liquor he had taken, 



THE B URNS ALMANA C. 1 1 1 

and slept for some hours in the open air. From the 
cold caiif^^ht on this occasion he never wholly recov- 
ered. He still, however, continued his song-writing, 
and one of the most beautiful and most toucliing of 
his l3n-ics was also one of his latest. This was the 
song beginning Here's a health to ane 1 1& e dea?', writ- 
ten on Jessy Lewars, a maiden of eighteen, sister to 
a brother exciseman, who proved a "ministering an- 
gel" to the poet in his last illness. In May, another 
election called forth another ballad, Wha will buy my 
troggiyi ? And about the middle of June we find the 
poet writing despondingly to his old friend Johnson, 
and requesting a copy of the Scots Musical Museum 
to present to a young lady. This was no doubt the 
copy presented to Jessy Lewars, June 26, inscribed 
with the verses, Thine be the volumes^ Jessy fair. As 
a last effort for health. Burns went on the 4th of 
July to Brow, a sea-bathing hamlet on the Solway. 
There he was visited by Maria Riddel, who thought 
"the stamp of death was imprinted on his features." 
He was convinced himself that his illness would 
prove fatal, and some time before this he had said to 
his wife, " Don't be afraid : I'll be more respected a 
hundred years after I am dead, than I am at pres- 
ent. " Mrs. Riddel saw the poet again on the 5th of 
July, when they parted to meet no more. On the 
7th he wrote to his friend Alexander Cunningham to 
move the Commissioners of Excise to continue his 
full salary of jQ^o instead of reducing it, as was the 
rule in the case of excisemen on duty, to ;£2>S' ^^• 
Findlater, his superior officer, says he had no doubt 
this would have been done had the poet lived. On 
the 10th Burns wrote to his brother as to his hope- 
less condition, his debts, and his despair ; and on the 
same day he addressed a request to his father-in-law, 
stern old James Armour, that he would write to 
Mrs. Armour, then in Fife, to come to the assistance 
of her daughter, the poet's wife, during the time of 



I f2 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

her confinement. His thoughts turned also to his 
friend Mrs. Diinlop, who had unaccountably been 
silent for some time. He recalled her interesting 
correspondence: *' With what pleasure did I use to 
break up the seal ! The remembrance adds yet one 
pulse more to my poor palpitating heart. Farewell !" 
Close on this dark hour of anguish came a lawyer's 
letter demanding payment — and no doubt hinting at 
the serious consequences of non-payment — of a hab- 
erdasher's account. This legal missive served to 
conjure up before the distracted poet, the image of a 
jail with all its horrors, and on the 12th he wrote 
two letters — one to his cousin in Montrose begging 
an advance of ;^io, and one to Mr. George Thom- 
son imploring ^5. "Forgive, forgive me!" He 
left the sea-side on the i8th, weak and feverish, but 
was able the same day, on arriving at his house in 
Dumfries, to address a second note to James Armour, 
reiterating the wish expressed six days before, but 
without dieting any reply: " Do, for Heaven's sake, 
send Mrs. Armour here immediately." From this 
period he was closely confined to bed (according to 
the statement of his widow), and was scarcely ^^hini' 
self for half an hour together. He was aware of 
his infirmity, and told his wife that she was to^touch 
him and remind him when he was going wrong. 
One day he got out of his bed, and his wife found 
him sitting in a corner of the room with the bed- 
clothes about him ; she got assistance, and he suf- 
fered himself to be gently led back to bed. The day 
before he died he called very quickly and with a hale 
voice, " Gilbert! Gilbert! " On the morning of the 
2ist, at daybreak, death was obviously near at hand, 
and the children were sent for. They had been re- 
moved to the house of Jessy Lewars and her brother, 
in order that the poet's dwelling might be kept 
quiet, and they were now summoned back that they 
might have a last look at their illustrious father in 
life. He was insensible, his mind lost in delirium. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 113 

and, according to his eldest son, his last words were, 
''That d d rascal, Matthew Penn! " — an execra- 
tion against the legal agent who had written the 
dunning letter. And so ended this sad and stormy 
life-drama, and the poet passed, as Mr. Carlyle has 
said, "not softly but speedily into that still country 
where the hail-storms and fire-showers do not reach, 
and the heaviest-laden wayfarer at length lays down 
his load. " On the evening of Sunday, the 24th of 
July, the poet's remains were removed from his 
house to the Town Hall, and the next day were in- 
terred with military honors. 



BURNS CLUBS IN AMERICA. 

Robert Burns Association, Philadelphia. 
Tam o' Shanter Club, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Burns Club, Newport News, Va. 
Waverley Society and Burns Club, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
The Burns Society of the State of New York, New 
York, N. Y. 

Robert Burns Club, Yonkers, N. Y. 

Burns Club, Waterbury, N. H. 

Burns Club, West New Brighton, Staten Id, N. Y. 

Burns Club, Brantford, (Ontario.) 

Burns Club, Utica, N. Y. 

Robert Burns Club, Chester, Pa. 

North Eastern Burns Club, Philadelphia. Pa. 

In addition to the above, every Caledonian Club, 
St. Andrew's Society, Order of Scottish Clans, Or- 
der of Sons of Scotland, and various other Societies 
throughout the United States and Canada hold a 
Burns Anniversary Celebration every 25th of Jan- 
uary. 



114 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

STATUES AND BUSTS OF BURNS. 

Statue in Edinburgh. 

Statue in Perth. 

Statue in New York. 

Statue in Dundee. 

Statue on Thames Embankment, London. 

Bust in Westminster Abbey, London. 

Statue in George Square, Glasgow. 

Statue in Kay Park, Kilmarnock. 

Bust in Monument on Doon side. 

Sculptured figure in Mausoleum, Dumfries. 

Statue in Dumfries. 

Statue in Ballarat, Australia. 

Statue in Albany, N. Y. 

Statue in Dunedin, New Zealand. 

Statue in Montrose. 

Bust in Wallace Monument, near Stirling. 

Statue in Ayr. 

Statue in Aberdeen. 

Statue in Barre, Vt. 

Statue in Belfast. 

Statue in Paisley. 

Bust in Metropolitan Museum, New York, by Cal- 
verley. 

Statuette in London, by P. R. Montford. 

Statue (in plaster) Cairns, Boston, by H. McNair. 

Bust owned by Andrew Carnegie, by Calverley. 

Bust owned by Peter Kinnear, of Albany, by Cal- 
verley. 

Statue in Irvine. 

Bust in Buffalo Library, by Langenbein. 

Statue in Artist's Studio, by W. Clark Noble. 

Bust (new study) in Artist's Studio, by Calverley. 

Medallion (new study) in Artist's Studio, by Cal- 
verley. 

Bust in Tullie House, Carlyle, England, by D. W. 
Stevenson. 

Statue in Leith. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC, 115 

BOOKS SUBSCRIBED FOR BY BURNS. 

Blind Harry. — Metrical History of Sir William 
Wallace, Knight, of Ellerslie, carefully transcribed 
from the manuscript copy in the Advocate's Library, 
Edinburgh, under the eye of the Earl of Buchan, 
with Notes, etc., Pocket volume edition, with por- 
trait and frontispieces, 3 vols, i8mo, cf., Morrison, 
Perth, 1790. Among the list of subscribers' names 
appears that of " Mr. Robert Burns, Ellisland." 

The Practical Figurer, by William Halbert, 
schoolmaster, Auchinleck. Paisley, 1789. The poet's 
name appears among the list of subscribers thus: — 
" Robert Burns of Parnassus." 

Poems, consisting of miscellaneous pieces, by 
James Mylne, Lochill, 1790. In the list of subscri- 
bers' names is "Mr. Robert Burns, Ellisland." 



A CENTURY OF BURNS BIOGRAPHY. 



By William Wallace. 



On the twenty-first of July, 1896, was completed 
that hundred years from the death of Robert Burns 
which, according to a generally credited, if not 
absolutely verified tradition, he told his Jean would 
be required to do justice to his memory. In the 
March number of the Monthly Magazine and British 
Register for 1797, there appeared the first instal- 
ment of the first biography of the poet — the modest 
beginning of the most extraordinary literature of 
the " Memoirs" order which the world has seen, or 
is likely to see. It was signed " H," and came from 
the pen of Robert Heron, an unfortunate — and 
according to Allan Cunningham — dissipated ' ' stickit 



I r6 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

minister'" and hack of letters, who died in 1807, and 
at the age of forty-three, in the Fever Hospital of 
St. Pancras, to which he had removed from a debt- 
or's cell in Newgate. Heron's biography was antici- 
pated, however, in the same magazine by anony- 
mous ''stanzas'* (in reality a poem of great length) 
to the memory of Robert Burns. These stanzas 
appeared in the "original poetry department" of 
the periodical in January (that January which, had 
the poet exciseman lived, would have witnessed his 
promotion to a supervisorship), in the company, 
oddly enough, of verses by Charles Lamb, who 
writes to "Sara and S. T. C. at Bristol," complain- 
ing that he cannot snatch a "fleeting holiday, a 
little week," to see them, and to 

Muse in tears on that mysterious youth 

Cruelly slighted, who, in evil hour, 

Shap'd his advent' rous course to London walls. 

There is, indeed, something almost pathetically 
prophetic in the character both of the poetical and 
of the prose memorials to the genius of Burns which 
appeared in the Monthly Magazine ninety-nine years 
ago. Upon the merits of no man have the poets 
been more heartily united and biographers more 
fatally, if not fiercely, disunited. The anonymous 
writer of January, 1797, closes his stanzas thus: 

High above thy reptile foes 

Thy tow'ring soul unconquer'd rose — 

Love and the Muse their charms disclose — 

The hags retire ; 
And thy expanded bosom glows 

With heav'nly fire. 
Go, Builder of a deathless name ! 
Thy Country's glory, and her shame ! 
Go, and th' immortal guerdon claim, 

To Genius due ; 
Whilst rolling centuries thy fame 

Shall still renew ! 

Here already we have the spirit, if not the 
genius of Wordsworth's noble lines, of the scarcely 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 117 

less eloquent Ode of Mr. William Watson, one of 
the most eminent of living poets, and the silent 
tears which, according- to Edward FitzGerald, were 
wrung from the late Lord Tennyson by the sudden 
realization of the glory of Doonside and the tragedy 
of Dumfries. On the other hand, Heron began his 
biography with a grotesque inaccuracy, and closed 
St with the first crude statement of the gravest of all 
the charges that have been made against the char- 
acter of Burns, He claimed for the poet that he 
was the product and triumph of the Scottish paroch- 
ial school system. This was altogether a blunder. 
If Burns was a triumph of anything except natural 
genius, he was a triumph of private tuition. Heron 
further brought his biography to a termination with 
this extraordinary statement: "Even in the last 
feebleness, and amid the last agonies of expiring 
life, yielding readily to any temptation that offered 
the semblance of intemperate enjoyment, he died 
at Dumfries, in the summer of the year 1796, while 
he was yet three or four years under the age of 
forty." It is hardly too much to say that the 
biographers of Burns, who have followed in the 
wake of Heron, have devoted more attention to 
ascertaining how much — or how little — truth there 
is in this damning declaration, than to the elucida- 
tion of any other disputed incident in the life of the 
poet. 

In this same year, 1797, Heron reprinted his 
articles in the Mont lily Magazine, with additions, as 
a biography of Robert Burns, and under his signa- 
ture. But immediately after the poet's death 
arrangements were made for the publication of an 
authoritative memoir. This work was entrusted to 
Dr. James Currie, a Liverpool physician, a great 
iidmirer of Burns, and a connection of Mrs, Dunlop. 
Currie had many advantages, including access to 
original manuscripts of poems and letters, which 
have been enjoyed by no subsequent biographer. 



ii8 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

Relatives of Burns, like his brother Gilbert, and 
surviving friends, like Syme of Rydedale, were 
understood to have given him all the help in their 
power. When Currie's Life appeared in 1800 it met 
with an instantaneous success. Few biographies 
have passed through so many editions as this has 
done; still fewer have been subjected to such merci- 
less criticism. The weaknesses of Currie's work are, 
indeed, only too apparent. He is deplorably inaccu- 
rate in matters of detail. He took unwarrantable 
liberties with Burns's letters. He has been proved 
to have deliberately misdated several of those w^hich, 
in his last years, the poet addressed to Mrs. Dunlop. 
He listened far too readily to reports bearing un- 
favorably on the life of a man whom he had never 
seen. It has been said that Currie was supported 
by the authority of Burns's physician. Dr. Max- 
well. Tliis view has, however, been discredited, to 
say the least, by the fact that, while Currie ex- 
pressly declares that Burns went to the Brow Well 
in the last months of his life in opposition to the 
views of his medical attendant, letters published 
within a comparatively recent period prove that the 
poet took this step in accordance with the advice of 
that attendant! But of Dr. Currie's good intentions 
there can be no doul^t whatever, and his Life is 
still, within certain limits, authoritative. 

It was followed in 1808 by Cromek's Reliqucs, 
which, although mainly notable as giving poerns by 
Burns which up to that period, had not seen the 
light, was valuable also for certain biographical 
passages. One of these — that dealing with the 
story of Highland Mary — has become part and 
parcel of the imperishable poetical romance. Three 
years later. Professor Josiah Walker, who knew 
Burns personally, published a biography by way of 
preface to Morison's editions of the poems. It con- 
tained reminiscences which are still of some interest 
and even biographical value, in spite of at least one 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 119 

serious mistake in dates which they contained, and 
of the scarification to which they and their author 
were subjected at the hands of Professor John 
Wilson. A reaction now set in ag-ainst the view of 
Burns's latest years — that he became intemperate 
and dissolute — first given by Heron, and counten- 
anced to a considerable extent by Currie. It be- 
came known that men like Findlater, his official 
superior, and his neighbor, Gray the teacher, indig- 
nantly denied these charges, and declared that their 
friend, although he lived a freely social life, never 
fell into sottishness. The first fruits of this reaction 
was the sympathetic biograph}^ which the celebrated 
ecclesiastic, humorist, and convivalist, the Rev. 
Hamilton Paul, published along with an edition of 
the "Poems and Songs" in 1819. This work in 
turn led up to a much more important work, con- 
ceived in a similar spirit. John Gibson Lockhart's 
Life, published in 1828, still holds its own as one of 
the standard biographies of Burns. As all the 
world knows, it was the work of Lockhart which 
called forth the celebrated Essay of Carlyle, which 
is at once one of the great masterpieces of Burns 
criticism, and the high-water mark of its author's 
earlier and, as many folk think, its better style. 

The publication of Lockhart's Life marks a 
stage — as it closed a generation — of Burns Biography. 
Lives and editions now poured forth on both sides of 
the Border with a rapidity almost as extraordinary 
as the growth of Burns clubs, and testifying, like 
that unique phenomenon, to the permanent fascina- 
tion of the poet's life and personality. They are far 
too numerous to mention; but the first Aldine 
edition, published in three volumes in 1839 along 
with a memoir by Sir Harris Nicholas, merits a word 
of attention, both for the fresh poems of Burns which 
were published in it, and also as being the first im- 
portant work on Burns that was published in Eng- 
land. And it became a fashion with Scottish poets 



I20 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

to edit the works of their acknowledg-ed pioneer and 
master. In 1834 " honest" — but by no means invar- 
iably accurate — Allan Cunningham published an edi- 
tion of Burns in eight volumes, along with a life 
which derives some weight from the fact that its 
author was a Dumfriesshire man, and claimed special 
acquaintance with the last seven years of the poet's 
life. James Hogg and William Motherwell pub- 
lished an edition of Burn's works in 1836; the fifth 
volume of this edition is a biography written by 
James Hogg. Among the other Scottish poets who 
had tried their hands at editing Burn's works, or 
writing his life, are Alexender Smith, who prepared 
the well-known Globe edition of the "Life and 
Works of Burns" (1868); Principal Shairp of Si. 
Andrews, whose monograph on the poet in the 
"English Men of Letters" series (1S79) raised a 
controversy which has not yet been forgotten, and is 
notable as having led Robert Louis Stevenson to 
write " Some Aspects of Robert Burns," which takes 
rank with Wilson's eloge and Carl3^1e's essay; the 
Rev. George Gilfillan, whose National Burns ap- 
peared in 1878-79; Professor Nichol, who in 1882 
contributed a biographical and critical essay on 
Burns to William Scott Douglas's six-v^olume edition 
of the Poems and Letters (published by Mr. Patter- 
son of Edinburgh); and Mr. Andrew Lang, who con- 
tributed an Introduction to "Selected Poems of 
Robert Burns." 

Meanw^hiie, the necessity for investigating every 
incident in Burn's life separately and much more 
thoroughly than had been done by Currie and Lock- 
hart had become obvious^ and had been emphasized 
by the publication of the celebrated Clarinda corres- 
pondence, first irregularly in 1802, and in a more 
complete form in 1843. This necessity was seen by 
no man more than by Robert Chambers, who, al- 
ways an enthusiastic and painstaking student of 
Burns, had edited (1838) one of the numerous 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 121 

editions of Currie, and in 1840 had, in conjunction 
with ProfCvSsor WiLson, produced "The Land of 
Burns," which is still the standard work on Burns 
topooTaph}^ Dr. Chambers's investii.>;-ations further 
led him to the conclusion that of no poet can it be 
said so absolutely as of Burns that his works form 
part of his life. The great majority both of his 
poems and of his letters reflect his moods — his des- 
pair, the anxiety and remorse due to his "thought- 
less follies;" his all embracing love of nature and 
humanity, the ecstacies on the wings of which he 
soared above the circumstances of his life. Dr. 
Chambers perceived that to separate the biography 
of the poet from the poems and letters was to effect 
an unnatural divorce, as they were portions of one 
astonishing if not stupendous whole. This connec- 
ticm was strengthened by the researches of another 
very painstaking student of Burns, William Scott 
Douglas, which culminated in the famous paper 
which he read before the Society of Scottish Antiqu- 
aries in January, 1850, and which rendered it almost 
certain that Burns's betrothal to Highland Mary was 
an episode in that attachment Vv^hich ended in Jean 
Armour becoming his wife. Dr. Chambers followed 
up this paper by independent discoveries in Green- 
ock, which proved, among other things, that the 
Mary Campbell whom all but universally accepted 
belief has identified with the Highland Lassie of 
Burns's verse and prose must, if the story of her 
relatives can be accepted at all, have been buried in 
the West Kirkyard of that town immediately after 
the acquisition of a "lair" there by her brother-in- 
law on October 12, 1786. The labors of Dr. Cham- 
bers, who had been placed in possession of all the in- 
formation at the disposal of Burns's surviving rela- 
tives, and of his youngest sister, Mrs. Begg, were 
crowned especially by the publication, in 1851-52, of 
his "Life of Burns" in four volumes. This work 
was at once recognized b}^ the public as the authori- 



122 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

tative biography of Burns, representing his life as an 
organic whole, in which letters, poems, and incidents 
form a "harmony not understood" — that indeed 
could not have been understood — by previous editors 
and biographers. 

Nearly half a century has elapsed since Dr. 
Chambers great work was published. Since then, 
innumerable editions of Burns's works, and not a 
fevv^ biographies, have been published in England, in 
America, and even on the continent, where the 
Burns cult is spreading with marvelous rapidity. 
Among the most remarkable of these lives are the 
highly original "spiritual" biography of the Rev. 
Dr. Hately Waddell, published in 1869, and the Life 
in two volumes given to the world in 1893 by M. 
Auguste Angellier, a professor in Lille. M. Angel- 
lier's book is a remarkable performance in many 
ways, — well informed, scholarly and full of enthus- 
iasm. To find a parallel to Burns, he goes not to 
"the too didactic Hesiod, nor the precise Theocrit- 
us," but to "the marvellous verses of Aristophanes." 
There " we find the countryman speaking for him- 
self, loving the earth unphilosophically, simply for 
the benefit he derives from it, and the labor it asks 
of him." But Mr. Angellier's work is mainly nota- 
ble for his strenuous and, on the whole, wonderfully 
successful effort to translate Burns into French. 

Not only is Burns literature increasing by leaps 
and bounds, but it is being specialized. For ex- 
ample, the books more or less of a biographical na- 
ture which have been written on Highland Mary al- 
most vie in number and in passion with those which 
have been evoked by the beauty and tragic story of 
her namesake, the Queen of Scots, Nor is it all an 
exaggeration to say that the controversial literature 
wliich has arisen out of the question whether Burns, 
when he lived in Edinburgh, was formally installed 
as Laureate of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge of 
Freemasons is equal in dimensions to the biographs 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 123 

of Cnrrie and Lockhart combined. The process of 
Burns specialization has been greatly encouraged by 
the establishment of Burns Clubs all over the world. 
Some missing links in the chain of biography, in the 
form both of poems and letters, have been foimd in 
the course of the last forty-three years. Most of 
these — including some which have never 5^et seen 
the light — were recovered by Dr. Chambers, who 
continued to the end of his life an indefatigable col- 
lector of all information bearing on his favorite sub- 
ject. Certain aspects of Burn's life also merit 
further exploration. The full story of his stay in 
Irvine has to be related. The whole truth has not 
been told of the circumstances under which he con- 
templated exile to Jamaica. The last word has not 
been said on Highland Mar3^ Above all things, 
fresh investigations into the life of Burns in Dum- 
fries tend happily to give him a higher claim, not to 
the love and admiration, — for a higher claim to these 
he cannot have — but to the respect of his fellow- 
countrymen. 

The researches of the last forty-three years have 
left unshaken the vast majority of the statements of 
facts which Dr. Chambers embodies in his biography. 
But they have further demonstrated the wisdom of 
the general plan which he adopted. The national 
feeling of Scotland for Burns has rendered the peri- 
odical rectification, elucidation, and consolidation of 
his biography a sacred duty; and it is in the per- 
formance of this duty that the publishers of Dr. 
Chambers's Life issued in 1896 a revised edition of 
that Vvork, containing the later discoveries of its 
author and of other Burns students who have fol- 
lowed in his footsteps. 



124 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 



THE STORY OF "CLARINDA." 

On December 7, 1787, on Burns's return from 
the Highland tour, he met, at the table of a com- 
mon friend, Mrs. M'Lehose, a lady whose husband 
had g-one to the West Indies and left her with limited 
means to bring up two children in retirement in 
Potterow. Handsome, lively, well read, of easy 
manners and a ready wit, a writer of verses, senti- 
mental, and yet ardent, she was born in the same 
year as Burns, and told him that she shared his dis- 
positions, and would have been his twin brother had 
she been a man. Two such beings were obviously 
made. for one another, and they lost no time in tind- 
ing it out. If he was, as lawyers maintain, at this 
time a married man, he did not know it; but she 
was sure that she w^as only a grass widow, and she 
was virtuous. Their correspondence must, there- 
fore, be conducted v;ith discretion, and "friend- 
ship," not " love," must be their watchword. How 
to reconcile the pretence with the realit)^ v/as the 
trouble. Let them take the names of Clarinda and 
Sylvander, and exchange their compliments v/ith 
the pastoral innocence of shepherd and shepherdess 
in the golden age. So it went on. Letters flying 
to and fro like carrier pigeons, then greetings from 
windows, visits, risks, reconcilings, fresh assigna- 
tions, reproaches and reconciliations, wearisome to 
us, alternately tantalising, and alluring to the mutu- 
ally fascinated pair. It was no case of mere phi- 
landering. Beneath all Clarinda's verbiage there 
throbs the pulse of real passion afraid of itself, and 
yet incapable of surrendering its object. Sylvander 
writes more like an artist, never with so much 
apparent affectation as in many of these letters — 
fustian and bombast they often are, but as to their 
being falsetto is another matter. In February he 
had news from Mauchline, which naturally dis- 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 125 

tressed, and seems, less naturally, to have surprised 
him. Jean was again about to become a mother, 
and this time her father turned her out of the 
house. Burns rushed to the rescue, and shortly 
came to the resolve to throw over his poetical grass 
widow and do his duty by the girl who for him had 
given up everything. In a note he says that his 
wife had read nothing but the Bible and his verses 
(in singing which he often praises her voice) but 
that his marriage had taken him "out of his vil- 
lany. " Clarinda, however, was of an opposite 
opinion, and on the news wrote him a furious letter, 
calling him "a villian," an accusation to which in a 
dignified reply of March, 1789, he refuses to plead 
guilty, being "convinced of innocence though con- 
scious of folly." Three years later, in November, 
1 791, he bitterly writes to Ainslie. " My wife scolds 
me, my business torments me, and my sins come 
staring me in the face." It is at this period that 
Clarinda again flashes with vivid lustre across the 
scene. The intermittent correspondence thickened, 
and towards the close of November he went to 
Edinburgh and spent a week mainly in her company. 
To their farewell meeting on the 6th of December 
there are several fervent allusions. From Dum- 
fries on his return we have on the 15th, "This is 
the sixth letter that I have written since I left you, 
my ever beloved." Shortly after he sends the 
verses "Ae fond kiss and then we sever," with the 
quatrain — 

Had we never loved sae kindly, 
Had we never loved sae blindly, 
Never met or never parted, 
We had ne'er been broken hearted — 

which, quoted by Byron, admired by Carlyle and 
Mr. Arnold, is the quintesscence of passionate regret. 
More than a year elapsed, during which Mrs. 
M'Lehose had gone to the Indies and, finding her 



126 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

husband surrounded by a troop of small mulattoes, 
had come back again. In an old woman's diary of 
1831, is the following inscription: — "This day I 
can never forget. Parted with Burns in the year 
1 79 1, forty years ago, never more to meet in this 
world. Oh, may we meet in heaven. " The writer 
survived till 1841, reaching the age of 82. It was 
Clarinda. 



BURNS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



The monumental bust in marble of the poet, the 
cost of which was provided by subscriptions of not 
more than one shilling each, contributed by his 
countrymen and admirers all over the world, was, in 
the presence of a large and influential assembly of 
ladies and gentlemen, unveiled on March 7th, 1885, 
in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, by the 
Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery. Prior to proceed- 
ing to the Poets' Corner the company met in the 
Jerusalem Chamber, but the attendance was so great 
that the meeting was adjourned to the large dining 
hall connected with the Westminster vSchool. The 
Dean of Westminster presided. 

Preceptor Wilson said: — My Lord, ladies, and 
gentlemen, in name of the committee of which I 
have the honor to be chairman, I have to thank you 
for your presence here to-day, and more especially 
the Dean of Westminster, for so kindly granting us 
the use of this chamber. The movement that has 
brought us together this day, like many great move- 
ments, had a very small beginning. It happened in 
this wise. A meeting of trades' representatives in 
Glasgow had been convened for the purpose of set- 
tling the order of procession when the statue to our 
national poet was unveiled by Lord Haughton, a day 
never to be forgotten in Glasgow, when a suggestion 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 127 

was thrown out that the time had surely come when 
a monumental bust of Burns might be placed in the 
Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The sugges- 
tion met with enthusiastic approval, and steps were 
taken there and then to raise subscriptions. It was 
felt that if the movement was to be not only nation- 
al, but I might say universal, the amount of individ- 
ual subscriptions should be limited to not more than 
a shilling, the same sum that raised the statue in 
George Square, Glasgow. To-day you will see the 
realization of this idea. I need not deal on the vast 
labor connected with a monument so unique, for I 
presume there is no monumental bust in the Abbey 
that has been raised by the shillings and pence of so 
many admirers. Prince and peasant gave their con- 
tributions, and I may add these contributions came 
to us from all ends of the earth. Switzerland, Ben- 
gal, New Zealand, Nova Scotia, Canada, United 
States of America (north and south). South Africa, 
London, Birmingham, Bradford, Halifax, Leicester, 
Liverpool, Norwich, Belfast, Limerick, Londonderry, 
and from nearly every town in Scotland. All the 
Scotch members of the House of Commons gave 
their shillings: more was offered, but more could 
not be received. Some twenty-two members of the 
House of Lords gave their shillings, and at the head 
of the list was His Royal Highness the Prince of 
Wales. In short, we have in our lists some 20,000 
contributors. In selecting an artist for the monu- 
mental bust of Burns the committee had great diffi- 
culty. It was said, and said truly, that as Burns 
was not only the national poet of Scotland, but be- 
longed to the human race, all nations might claim 
him as expressing in some measure their national 
feelings. No doubt all this was true, but the com- 
mittee felt at the same time that the whole move- 
ment was so full of Scottish national feeling, that 
Burns was so distinctly a Scottish poet, and that the 
bust was to be a Scottish gift to the British national 



128 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

shrine, that the case required it should be executed 
by a Scottish artist. In the veteran artist Sir John 
Steell, of the Royal Scottish Academy, whose ab- 
sence we all so much reg-ret this day, we found a 
man after our own heart, an enthusiastic admirer of 
the poet, and who executed some years ago the 
Burns statue at New York, which has since been re- 
peated on behalf of Dundee, London and Dunedin. 
In carrying out the commission the sculptor has 
shown that his hand still retains its ancient cunning. 
I wall make only one further observation, viz: the 
bust is no fancy portraiture of the poet, but the re- 
sult of careful study of Nasmyth's authentic portrait, 
the original of which is in the National Gallery at 
Edinburgh. The site so graciously granted by the 
Dean and Chapter of Westminster is, we think, the 
most appropriate that could have been chosen, even 
had the opportunity of selection presented itself very 
many 5^ears ago, and long before the Abbey had 
been so well filled as it now is with similar memor- 
ials and monuments to the illustrious dead. The 
bust has been erected on the stone screen in the 
centre of which is the splendid statue of Shake- 
speare, England's and the w^orld's greatest dramatist 
and poet. To the right of Shakespeare stands the 
statue of Glasgow's greatest poet, Thomas Camp- 
bell, author of the "Pleasures of Hope," "Ye Mar- 
iners of England," and other lyrics that will last as 
long as the English language. To the left of Shake- 
speare is the monument to the poet Thomson, an- 
other working Scotchman, and author of "The Sea- 
sons," &c., and on a level with the bust of Burns is 
the tablet and monumental bust to the memory of 
Robert Southey, the immediate predecessor of Lord 
Tennyson, our illustrious Laureate. I am afraid I 
have detained you too long from the interesting 
ceremony still before you. I shall not, in this dis- 
tinguished company, say one word on the character 
and genius of Burns, for that was so well and so elo- 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 129 

quently said by Lord Roseber}^ on a recent occasion ; 
but I may again be pardoned if I remind you that 
the poet had some, it may be dim, vision of this day 
Avhen he penned the memorable lines so familiar to 
us all from our childhood. Speaking of himself, he 
makes the "gossip " say — 

" He'll hae misfortunes great and sma', 
But aye a heart abune them a', 
He'll be a credit to us a' — 
We'll a' be prood o' Robin." 

In conclusion, let me add how appropriate it is 
that this monumental bust of our Scottish national 
poet should be placed in this glorious temple, the 
pride of our country, consecrated to Almighty God, 
and where the song of the angels has so often been 
sung — ''Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
earth, and goodwill to men;" paraphrased b}^ Burns, 
in his ever to be remembered " wood notes wild " — 

" Then let us pray that come it may, 
As come it will for a' that, 
That man to man the world o'er 
Shall brithers be and a' that," 

In the name of the committee I have again to 
thank you for your attendance here on this red-letter 
day for Scotland and Scotchman all the world over, 
and I have most respectfully to ask the Right Hon. 
the Earl of Rosebery to proceed to unveil the bust, 
and hand it over, with the nation's thanks, to the 
safe keeping of Dean Bradley and the Chapter of 
Westminster Abbey. 

The Earl of Rosebery said — Mr. Dean, ladies 
and gentlemen, it will be impossible for me to say 
more than one or two words on this most interesting 
and most auspicious occasion. In the first place, I 
was told I was not to say anything; in the next 
place, I am expected to return at once to an assem- 
bly which I will not mention for fear I should 
trench upon the forbidden ground of politics; and 



130 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

in the third place, as this is the third effigy of Bums 
I have unveiled within the last two years, it will be 
better to refrain from any further discourse on that 
immortal topic. Mr. Dean, I must be allowed, 
however, to return to you, in the name of the sub- 
scribers who are here present and the subscribers 
who are absent, because they could not all be con- 
tained in this or any other hall, our sincere thanks 
not merely for the courtesy which you have dis- 
played to us in the course of our dealings with you, 
but for the spontaneity and readiness with which 
you agreed to admit the bust within the walls of 
which you are the trustee. In past days many were 
admitted into Westminster Abbey whom a stricter 
scrutiny would probably be disposed to reject, and 
the result is that the walls of that structure are so 
encumbered with various memorials and various 
tablets that it is hardly possible now to find a place 
in Poets' Corner for anybody. We therefore take it 
as a greater compliment from you, Mr. Dean, that 
you, without hesitation and without reluctance, in 
the happiest and most friendly terms at once 
accorded some of the few remaining inches of space 
to a bust held dear by so large a proportion of your 
countrymen. As regards the ceremony of this day, 
I think it can be summed up in two very brief sen- 
tences. As regards the trustees of our national 
temple of fame, the spontaneous welcome which 
they have accorded to the effig}^ of Burns nearl}* a 
century after his death seems to me to represent not 
the partiality of friends or the enthusiasm of 
devotees, but the voice and judgment of posterity 
itself. And as regards the subscribers who offer it, 
we feel that in handing over to the Abbey this bust 
we are bringing the very choicest offering that we 
can bring to the shrine of the empire. 

The Dean of Westminster said — My Lord 
Rosebery, Preceptor Wilson, and all the Scottish 
friends who are here, I may assure you that it is in 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 131 

a spirit of something warmer than cordial acquies- 
cence that we Englishmen have rejoiced to crown 
to-day the efforts of Scotsmen in all quarters of the 
globe by placing a memorial of your great poet in 
that part of our historic church which for more than 
three centuries has been sacred to the memory of 
our national poets. We need not, I think, regret 
that such homage may seem at first sight somewhat 
tardy. If all but 90 years have passed since your 
poet's death, we may remember that for a century 
and a half the dust of Chaucer lay unmarked and 
unhonored by any monument. Nearly as long a 
period went by before any record of Shakespeare 
found a place upon our walls. Even Milton's name 
was for more than two generations unnoticed, except 
for a passing reference in the inscription to a for- 
gotten poet. And of Burns, as his great brother 
poets, no verdict of posterity will reverse our judg- 
ment. The three generations that have passed 
since the death of the Ayrshire peasant saddened 
Scotland and smote the heart of England with the 
thought "of might}" poets in their misery dead," 
have only increased the interest of mankind in the 
man, have only raised the deliberate estimate of his 
marvellous genius. In his own well-known words — 

*^ Time the impression deeper makes, 
As streams their channels deeper wear." 

Sut I feel, quite apart from the pressure of time, it 
would be impertinent for one who has passed his 
life in southern England to speak to Scotsmen of 
the poetry of the most universal, yet also the most 
national, of poets, of one who has gained a hold on 
the heart and mind of his countrymen to which I 
hardly know any parallel in the history of literature. 
What corner of the habitable globe is there to which 
the restless foot and active brain of Scotchmen have 
penetrated that has not echoed with his poetry? 



132 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 



His sono-s are sun^i^ to-day, let me say, by your 
brave countrymen on the banks of the Nile, 

Where many dangers they must dare, 
Far from the bonny banks of Ayr. 

But I cannot forget to-day that I stand in the place 
of one who has left on record passage after passage 
of singular interest, in which he displays profound 
admiration of your poet such as I have found in no 
English writer with v/hom I am acquainted. If one 
so blameless and so pure in life and thought as 
Arthur Stanley was not blind to the darker side, to 
the sadder side, of the poet's life, which is recorded 
in such tender and pathetic accents by the poet him- 
self — if he ventured to speak of him before a Scot- 
tish audience on Scottish soil as "the prodigal son 
of the Scottish Church," yet I may ask what Eng- 
lishman, I may say what Scotchman, ever entered 
with fuller sympathy or keener discrimination into 
all that was wise and enduring in his teaching ? You 
gentlemen, you Scotsmen, may dwell with pride on 
the invigorating influence of the genius of Burns in 
rekindling in Scotland the embers of a warm and 
passionate natural feeling of a love for the scenery, 
the manners, the associations, the history — the 
romantic and inspiring history — of your native land, 
an influence second only to that of the Wizard of the 
North. But I may remind you to-day that it was 
not a Scotsman but an Englishman, a Dean of 
Westminster, who, while really sensitive to all that 
we deplore in the poet's works or character, yet did 
not shrink from recognizing even a religious power 
in the "tender pathos," the "wise humor," the 
"sagacious penetration" of Robert Burns. Nay 
more, he did not shrink from placing him, in virtue 
not of one or two, but of many of his poems, among 
"the universal teachers of all churches." In one 
he recognized, "if not the theology of Calvin, yet 
certainly that of the Sermon on the Mount;" in 



THE BURNS ALMANAC, 133 

another "the most comprehensive and pathetic of 
prayers for a Christian household;" in a third "the 
most profound and pastoral of advice to youth." It 
was not a vScot, but a Dean of Westminster, who 
did not even flinch from the "withering satire" 
with which your poet assailed much of the religious 
teaching of his day "those keen sarcasms" — I quote 
once more his words — "which pierce through the 
hollow cant and harrowing preten^sions of every 
Church v/ith a sword which cuts too sharply, but 
not too deeply." Nay more, he went so far as to 
draw a parallel between the devout tinker of Bed- 
ford, the author of the "Pilgrim's Progress, " and 
one so unlike him as the peasant poet of the "Cot- 
tar's vSaturday Night." And we, my Lord, as we 
shall stand for a moment in silence by a bust which 
may recall, we trust, to far-off ages, if not the 
"large dark eye, which glowed," as the greatest of 
his countr3^men said, "literally glowed when he 
spoke with feeling and interest," yet, at least, the 
inassive countenance with strength and shrewdness 
in every lineament, we may ask that tlie poet's best 
legacies to his race, all that is good and beautiful 
and noble in his poems may long invigorate and 
enrich and delight mankind in every corner of the 
world where his tongue is spoken — that all that is 
misleading or lowering may die out of men's hearts. 
And for himseU", with all his splendid gifts, his great 
qualities, his indisputable virtues, his indisputable 
frailties and faults, let us be content — in the words 
of a poet who was dear to him in his youth, and 
whose monument will not lie far from his own — let 
us be content to leave them — 

'* 111 their dread abode. 
Where they aHke in trembling hope repose. 
The bosom of their Father and their God." 

The company, headed by the Dean and Lord 
Rosebery, then proceeded to the Poets Corner, where, 



134 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

after a short prayer, by the Dean, Lord Rosebery 
unveiled the bust. In addition to the large gather- 
ing which had accompanied the Dean from the 
Dining Hall, there was a numerous attendance in 
those parts of the Abbey open to the public, and 
nearly every one present took advantage of the 
Dean's permission to inspect the monument. 

The bust, which is by Sir John Steell, R.S.A., 
is erected on a corbel, ornamented in harmony with 
the style of the surrounding portions of the building. 
It stands about fifteen feet from the Abbey floor, 
and about three feet to the right of the bust of 
Shakespeare. On the left of the great dramatist is 
the memorial of another eminent Scottish poet, 
James Thomson, the author of "The Seasons." 
The sculptor has largely adhered to the leading 
features of the Nasmyth portrait of Burns, modified 
by information from other sources. 



MISCONCEPTIONS REGARDING BURNS. 

From an Address by John D. Ross 

.... It is a peculiar fact that no poet has received 
the same amount of censure and praise from the 
world at large as has Robert Burns. And there are 
many reasons for this. He was in all respects a poet 
of the people. He sang for the masses and not for 
the aristocracy. He hated hyprocrisy and shams 
and allowed no opportunity to pass whereby he could 
expose and hold up to ridicule either them or their 
authors. And in doing this he made enemies for 
himself right at the beginning of his brilliant poetical 
career, enemies who continued to scatter lies and 
foul accusations against him, not only during his 
brief and eventful life, but long after he had passed 
to the Silent Land. 

Now, I am not so blinded with enthusiam for 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 135 

Burns as to claim that he was what we term to-day, 
a religious, temperate man, but I do claim that his 
faults have been greatly magnified and that many of 
them, were simply the faults common to the age in 
which he lived. Hundreds of intellectual and highly 
cultured individuals who were famous as authors, 
statesmen, etc., in the Seventeenth Century lived the 
self same kind of a life as Robert Burns did, and yet 
their various peculiarities are not blazoned forth, or 
pointed out as a warning to posterity. Indeed, the 
parties themselves or their works are seldom men- 
tioned or heard tell of one way or the other now-a- 
days. 

And how then comes it that because one of the 
brightest geniuses ever born in Scotland happened 
in one or two unguarded moments to falter in the 
path of virtue and on several occasions is said to have 
indulged too freely with a few boon companions over 
the festive cup ? Why is it, I ask, that his little 
shortcomings and failmgs must be continually par- 
aded by some parties before the wondering gaze of 
the unco guid and the enlightened generations con- 
stituting the Nineteenth Century? These same 
parties seem to forget or to entirely overlook the fact 
that it is not the life of Burns his admirers are en- 
thusiastic about, but his high-born, unapproachable, 
poetic genius. 

A fruitful source from whence have emanated 
misconceptions and errors regarding Burns and his 
writings, may be traced, strange to say, to his various 
editors and biographers. These gentlemen, with a 
few exceptions, have taken the memoir of the poet, 
written almost immediately after his death by Dr. 
James Currie as their guide, and whether the state- 
ments made in that memoir by him were true or not, 
they have never stopped to consider, but have taken 
it for granted that they were and blindly followed 
him. 



136 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

New fads are (gradually being brought to light, 
however, facts showirig that certain statements made 
by Dr. Currie, Allan Cunningham and others are 
both erroneous and false. Not only have words 
been omitted in his poems and letters, but whole 
sentences, and lines and dates have been deliberately 
tampered with and changed. So-called new editions 
of his works have been issued and sent broadcast 
over the world, and yet on investigation these new 
editions prove to be nothing but the very old ones of 
Currie and others, reprinted, and full of errors and 
blemishes, with a title page, having a new imprint, 
as well as a nev/ date on it. 

And so this kind of thing has been going on 
since 1800, when Dr. Currie issued his edition in 
four volumes, until people, deeply interested in all 
that concerns the poet, are taking the matter in hand, 
and by study and careful investigation are proving 
that many of the sayings and doings, which we know 
to the discredit of Burns, are simply myths. 

What some fanatics are pleased to term "The 
downward grade in the life of Burns," began with 
his removal to Dumfries, in 1791. From this date 
until his death he is credited by them with all sorts 
of wickedness. He was a libertine, a drunkard, etc. 
Indeed, we are told that toward the end of his life 
the better class of society in Dumfries shunned him 
entirely, and we are all familiar with the story of 
his v/alking ak>ne and unheeded one day along the 
shady side of the principal street in the town, while 
the other side was crowded with gay ladies and 
gentlemen. 

Mr. R. L. Stevenson says, speaking of the Dum- 
fries period, " Burns was thenceforward incapable, 
except in rare instances, of that superior effort of 
concentration, which is required for serious literary 
work. He may be said, indeed, to have worked no 
more, and only amused himself with letters." 

But surely, my friends, Mr. Stevenson must 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 137 

have been talking;- at random when he ventured this 
assertion. Leaving- his other vahiable work, vSuch as 
contributions to "Johnson's Museum" and to 
" Thomson's Collection " out of the question, Burns 
produced over 100 of his best sono;-s while residing in 
Dumfries, among- them being "Sects Wha Hae," 
" Ae Fond Kiss,"^^' " A Man's a Man for a' That," 
" Auld Lang vSyne," "Duncan Gray Cam' Here to 
Woo." " Auld Rob Morris," O, Whistle an' I'll Come 
to Ye My Lad," "My Love is Like a Red, Red 
Rose," " My Heart is vSair, I DarnaTell," " O Wert 
Thou in the Cauld Blast," "Last May a Braw 
Wooer," "Lassie Wi' the Lint White Locks " and 
others which are widely knowm the world over. 
And it is just such eminent men as Stevenson making 
rash statements of this kind that keeps alive apityful 
sort of prejudice in certain quarters regarding the 
poet and his works. Were their statements true, no 
one, of course, could honestly object to them, but 
therein lies the trouble, they are not true, and the 
parties are unable to verify them w^hen called upon 
to do so. 

We have all read and believed it true that 
Burns, while acting- as an excise officer, was several 
times reprimanded by his superiors for serious offen- 
ces. A few years ago, however, by the discovery of 
certam books, it Vv^as shown conclusively that such 
was not the case. These books or diaries cover the 
entire period of Burns' connection with the excise, 
and his name is only mentioned twice in them, once 
in 1792 and again in 1795. Now listen to the offen- 
ces on which his detractors have laid so much stress. 

1 quote from a recent article (^n the subject: " In 
the first instance, on May 10, 1792, Burns, in taking- 
a trader's stock of tea, entered j6o pounds in his 
book instead of sixteen pounds, which error he him- 
self rectified on his next visit. In the second in- 
stance he neglected to visit a tanner, as he ought to 
have done, according to his instructions, on the 25th 



138 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

of May, 1795, and vSuperintendent Findlater came in 
on the following day and discovered the omisvsion. 
He was not even censured for these paltry mistakes. 

Toward the end of a memoir of Burns in an 
edition of his works issued last year in London, I 
read as follows: 

" We are now fast approaching the last scene of 
this strange, sad history. His health had seriously 
given way in the latter end of 1795, ^^^ when re- 
turning home from the Globe tavern one night in 
January of the following year, he had the misfortune 
to fall asleep in the snow. This disaster resulted in 
an attack of rheumatic fever, which still further 
enfeebled his already impaired constitution. After 
fruitlessly trying various expedients to recover his 
strength, and in the endurance of keen mental agony, 
Robert Burns died, his reason almost tottering on 
its throne, on the 21st day of July, 1796. 

Now, there has always seemed something wrong 
about this sleeping in the snow story to me. 

On the 31st of January, Burns wrote to Mrs. 
Dunlop about the death of his " only daughter and 
darling child." These are his own words, and then 
said, " I had scarcely began to recover from that 
shock when I became the victim of a most severe 
rheumatic fever. " This letter, you notice, is dated 
the 31st of January. Lockhart, as good a biographer 
as Burns has ever had, says that "a few days after 
the writing of this letter, he joined a festive circle 
at a tavern dinner, etc." Dr. Curriesays that **from 
October, 1795, to the January following an accidental 
complaint confined him to the house. A few days 
later he dined at a tavern, etc." Alexander Smith, 
in an excellent and well-written life of the poet, says 
that " the tavern dinner took place early in January," 
and so on, each has his own idea on the subject, and 
each contradicts the other — so which are we to 
believe? 

But now let me read an extract from an article 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 139 

by William Wallace on this very subject. Mr. Wal- 
lace, whom I acknowledge to be one of the best 
Burns scholars of the day, says, " There is no word 
of a tavern dinner as the hnal cause of Burns' death 
in Heron's biography. There is none in Hamilton 
Paul's. There is no word of the Globe Inn as the 
scene of the dinner in Currie or Lockhart or Walker. 
As for Lockhart, he says gingerly, ' It has been said 
that he fell asleep upon the snow on his way home.' 
It is in 1838, and in a note to a new edition of Currie, 
then published, that the Globe Inn and the sleep in 
the snow story make their definitive appearance. It 
runs thus : ' It is added as a tradition of Dumfries 
that on his way home he sat down on some steps 
projecting into the street, and falling asleep in that 
situation became fatally chilled.' And so it is on a 
tradition of nearly half a century old that Burns' 
character has been blasted — a tradition, too, which 
asks us to believe that his companions, although 
they preceived him to be intoxicated, had not the 
common humanity to see him safely home ! 

" The Globe legend that Burns died of a fever 
caused in the final resort by intoxication is therefore 
a confused mass of contradictory statements, and 
may be placed on the same shelf as the almost iden- 
ical story which is related by the way of accounting 
for the death of Shakespeare." 



FLOWERS MENTIONED BY BURNS. 

Snowdrop and primrose — 
** The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, 
And violets bath in the weet o' the morn." 

Primrose — 
** The primrose I will pu', the firstling o' the year." 

Pink— 
**And I will pu' the pink, the emblem o' my dear." 



I40 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

Rose — 
"I'll pu' the buddinjT;' rose when Phoebus peeps in 
view." 

Balm — 
" For its like a baumy kiss o' her sweet bonnie mou." 

Hyacinth — 
"The hyacith's for constancy, wi' its unchanging 
blue." 

Lily- 
"The lily it is pure, and the lily it is fair, 
And in her lovely bosom I place the lily there." 

Daisy — 
" The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air." 

Hawthorn — 
" The hawthorn I will pu' wi" its locks o' siller grey, 
Where like an aged man it stands at break o'day." 

Woodbine — 
" The woodbine I will pu' when the e'ening star is 
near." 

Violet— 

"The violet for modesty, which weel she fa's to 
wear, 
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear ^lay." 

Myrtle — 
"Their groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign lands 
reckon. 
Where bright beaming summers exalt the per- 
fume." 

Brake fern — 
" Far dearer to me yon glen o' green breckan." 

Broom — 
" Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom. " 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 141 

Bluebell and goivan — 
"Where the bhiebell and gowan lurk lowly unseen." 
A-list'ning the linnet, aft wanders my Jean." 

Harebells — 
" Mourn, little harebells o'er the lee." 

Foxgloves — 
"Ye stately foxgloves, fair to see. 

In scented bow'rs. " 

Wallflower — 
" Where the wa'flower scents the dewy air." 

Ivy — 
" Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower. " 

Reeds — 
" Ye healthy wastes, immixed with reedy fens." 

Sedge and rushes — 
"Ye mossy streams, with sedge and rushes stor'd; 
To you I fly, ye with my soul accord." 

Cowslips — 
" Now bank and brae are clothed in green, 
An' scatter'd cowslips sweetly spring. " 

Poppies — 
" But pleasures are like poppies spread. 
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed." 

Water lily — 
" His hoary head with water lilies crowned." 

Gardener' s garters — 
" His manly leg with garter tangle bound." 

Brier — 
" O bonnie was yon rosy brier, 
That blooms sae far frae haunt o' man." 



142 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

Heather — 
** Sweet brushing the dew from the brown heather 
bells." 

Moss— 
*' Her color betrayed her on yon mossy fells." 

Thistle — 
* ' The roiig-h bur- thistle, spreading wide, 
I turned by weeding heuk aside, 
An' spared the s3aTibol dear." 

Thyme — 
"Hey and the rue grows bonnie wi' thyme." 

Rue— 

*' And the thyme it is withered, and rue is in prime." 

Lint— 
" I bought ray wife a stane o' lint." 

Whins — 

" vShe through the whins and by the cairn, 
An' ower the hill gaed screivin'. " 

Boortree — 
"Or rustlin', thro' the boortrees comin'." 

Holy— 
"Green, slender, leaf clad holy boughs 
Were twisted gracefu' round her brows.'* 

Sloe thorn — 
"From the white blossomed sloe, my dear Chloe 
requested 
A sprig her fair breast to adorn." 

Lime and Orange — 
" O sweet grows the lime and the orange." 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 143 

Laurel — 
*' Then farewell hopes o' laurel bows, 
To garland my poetic brows." 

Many other quotations could be made with 
reference to other plants, etc., connected with the 
vegetable world, but, as they are farther from the 
subject than any now taken notice of, I have kept 
them out of the list. As already stated, some of 
the plants noted will not be regarded as flowers; 
however, if such plants as puddock-stools and nettles 
were included, we would be farther a-iield than 
ever. The list will be found to contain all the more 
characteristic and emblematic plants connected with 
Britain. 



THE FUNERAL OF ROBERT BURNS. 

It was on Thursday, the 21st of July, 1796, that 
the poet breathed his last in the house which the 
Industrial vSchool now adjoins, and the funeral took 
place on the following Monday, 25th July. It was 
of a public character, and started from the Mid- 
steeple, to which the body had been removed on the 
Sabbath evening. Some confusion has unaccoimt- 
ably arisen on this point, on which there is really no 
room for uncertainity. The building has been 
referred to in some works of a recent date as the 
Trades Hall, which was in the same neighborhood, 
but on the opposite side of the street, and was let out 
for meetings and entertainments. But in the report 
of the funeral which appeared in the Dumfries 
Journal on the following day it is called " the Town 
Hall;" and Mr William Grierson, draper, who as a 
young man walked in the posession, records in the 
diary which he kept at the time that it was in the 
Court-house that the coffin was placed and where 
the mourners assembled. This was the large apart- 



144 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

ment in the upper stor}^ of the Midsteeple, approach- 
ed by the outside stair, and was at the time the place 
in which the sittings of the Sheriff Court and the 
Justiciary Court were held. Public meetings of an 
official nature, on such questions, for example, as 
national defense, were also held within its walls, so 
that it might quite appropriately be spoken of as the 
Town Hall. Dumfries was at that time never with- 
out a contingent of military. The troops then 
quartered in the town were the Angus-shire Fen- 
cibles (a force which formed the precursor of the 
of the district militia, but which was levied by con- 
scription ballot), commanded by Major Fraser, and a 
detachment of the Cinque Ports Cavalry, under 
Captain Findlay. These forces joined with the local 
Volunteers in paying military honors to the author 
" Scots wha ha'e," "Does haughty Gaul," the pop- 
ular war-song of the time — " The Poor and Honest 
Sodger," and the heroic soldier's " Song of Death." 
The following is the simple account of the funeral 
which appeared in the weekly issue of the local 
newspaper: 

"The mihtary here, consisting of the Cinque 
Ports Cavalry and the Angus-shire Fencibles, having 
handsomely tendered their services, lined the streets 
on both sides to the burial grounds. The Royal 
Dumfries Volunteers (of which he was a member) in 
uniform, with crape on their left arms, supported 
the bier. A party of that corps, appointed to per- 
form the military obsequies, moving in slow, solemn 
time to "The Dead March in Saul," which was 
played by the military band, preceded in mournful 
array, with arms reversed. The principal part of 
the inhabitants of this town and neighborhood, with 
a number of the particular friends of the bard from 
remote parts, followed in possession — the great bells 
of the churches tolling at intervals. Arrived at the 
at the churchyard gate the funeral party, according 
to the rules of that exercise, formed two lines, and 



THE BURNS ALMANAC. 145 

leaned their heads on their firelocks pointed to the 
ground. Through this space the corpse was carried, 
and borne forward to the grave. The party then 
drew up alongside of it, and fired three volleys over 
the cofhn when deposited in the earth. The whole 
ceremony presented a solemn, grand, and affecting 
spectacle ; and accorded with the general sorrow and 
regret for the loss of a man whose like we scarce can 
see again." 

Allan Cunningham, who was then serving his 
apprenticeship in Dumfries as a stone mason, wit- 
nessed the funeral of his elder and greater brother 
of '* the bardic race," and years afterwards he pub- 
lished an account of it, which showed that the pro- 
ceedings had greatly impressed him ; but when he 
estimates the multitude who assembled at twelve 
thousand, we recognize the exaggerated impressions 
of a boy of twelve. It is worth while, however, to 
quote what Cimningham says of the demeanor of the 
townspeople during the last illness of Burns, for the 
information of the remnant who cling 10 the myth 
that he was neglected and unappreciated by his own 
townspeople. '* Dumfries," says Allan, " was like a 
besieged place. It was known he was dying, and 
the anxiety not of the rich and learned only, but of 
the mechanics and peasants exceeded all belief. 
Wherever two or three people stood together their 
talk was of Burns, and of him alone. They spoke of 
his history, of his person, of his works, of his family, 
and of his untimely approaching fate, with a warmth 
and enthusiasm which will ever endear Dumfries to 
my remembrance. All that he said or was saying — 
the opinion of the physicians (and Maxwell was a 
kind and skillful one) were eagerly caught up and 
reported from street to street. As his life drew to a 
close the eager yet decorous solicitude of his fellow- 
townsmen increased. It is the practice of the young 
men of Dumfries to meet in the street during the 
hours of remission from labor, and by these means I 



146 THE BURNS ALMANAC. 

had an opportunity of witnessing the general solici- 
tude of all ranks and of all ages. His differences 
with some of them on some important points were 
forgotten and forgiven. They thought only of his 
genius; of the delight his compositions had diffused; 
and they talked of him with the same awe as of some 
departing spirit whose voice was to gladden them no 
more." 

We reproduce also Mr. Grierson's account of 
the funeral (to which we have referred above) and 
the reflections on the subject which he wrote in his 
diary : 

"Monday, 25th July. — This day at 12 o'clock 
went to the burial of Robert Burns, who died on the 
2ist, aged 38 years. In respect to the memory of 
such a genius as Mr. Burns, his funeral was uncom- 
monly splendid. The military here consisted of the 
Cinque Ports Cavalry and Angus-shire P'encibles, 
who, having handsomely tendered their services, 
lined the streets on both sides from the Court-house 
to the burial ground. (The corpse was carried from 
the place where Mr. Burns died to the Court-house 
last night.) Order of procession: The firing party, 
which consisted of twenty of the Royal Dumfries 
Volunteers (of which Mr. Burns was a member), in 
full uniform with crapes on the left arm, marched in 
front with arms reversed, moving in a slow and 
solemn time to the ' Dead March in Saul, ' which was 
played by the military band belonging to the Cinque 
Ports Cavalry. Next to the firing party was the 
band, then the bier or corpse supported by six of 
the Volunteers, who changed at intervals. The 
relations of the deceased and a number of the re- 
spectable inhabitants of both town and country 
followed next. Then the remainder of the Volun- 
teers followed in rank, and the procession closed with 
a guard of Angus-shire Fencibles. The great bells 
of the churches tolled at intervals during the time of 
the procession. When arrived at the churchyard 



THE BURNS ALMANAC, 147 

gate, the funeral party formed two lines, and leaned 
their heads on their firelocks pointed to the ground. 
Through this space the corpse was carried and 
borne to the grave. The party then drew up along- 
side of it, and fired three volleys over the coffiin 
when deposited in the earth. Thus closed a cere- 
mony which, on the whole, presented a solemn, 
grand, and affecting spectacle, and accorded with 
the general sorrow and regret for the loss of a man 
whose like we can scarce see again. As for his 
private character and behavior, it might not have 
been so fair as could have been wished, but whatever 
faults he had, I believe he was always worse for 
himself, and it becomes us to pass over his failings 
in silence, and with veneration and esteem look to 
his immortal works, which will live forever. I be- 
lieve his extraordinary genius may be said to have 
been the cause of bringing him so soon to his end, 
his company being courted by all ranks of people, 
and being of too easy and accommodating a temper, 
which often involved him in scenes of dissipation and 
intoxication, which by slow degrees impaired his 
health, and at last totally ruined his constitution. 
For originality of wit, rapidity of conception, and 
fluency of nervous phraseology he was unrivalled. 
He has left a wife and five children in very indigent 
circumstances, but I understand very liberal and 
extensive subscriptions are to be made for them. 
His wife w^as delivered of a child about an hour after 
he was removed from the house." 




MANUSCRIPT NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 149 



I50 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 151 



152 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES, 153 



154 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 155 



156 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS, NOTES. 157 



158 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 159 



i6o THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC-MS. NOTES, i6r 



i62 THE BURNS ALMANAC—MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 163 



i64 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 165 



i66 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 167 



i68 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



i'^ 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 169 



I70 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 171 



172 THE BURNS ALMANAC—MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 173 



174 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 175 



176 THE BURNS ALMANAC— MS. NOTES. 



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